m & ^TO N L U Y [HI OS =, 

Here I stand . 

and cannot do otiierwise.C-od be ray help. Amen.' 
American Sunday-School Union, Philadelphia. 



THE 



LIFE OF LUTHER; 



atrial $$immi to ita (Sarlur ^mo&fi 



OPENING SCENES 



THE REFORMATION. 



BY BARNAS SEARS, D.D. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

No. 316 CHESTNUT STREET. 

NRW YORK — No. 59 CHAMBERS ST. ... BOSTON- No. 9 CORNHILL. 
LOUISVILLE — No, 103 FOURTH ST. 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1850, by the 
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



$86555 
N. 4, '35 

No books are published by the American Sunday-school Union without the 
sanction of the Committee of Publication, consisting of fourteen members, from the 
following denominations of Christians, viz. Baptist, Methodist, Congregationalist, 
Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Reformed Dutch. Not more than three of the members 
can be of the same denomination, and no book can be published to which any mem- 
ber of the Committee shall object. 



1. Ashmead, printer. 



et 9 




PREFACE. 



In an age so distinguished for historical research as the 
present, it would be remarkable if there were no demand for 
a Life of Luther founded upon new investigations. In the 
English language the want of such a work is much greater 
than in the German. In the latter, the facts newly dis- 
covered, though they lie scattered in many different publica- 
tions, are recorded; while, in the former, they are nearly 
or quite unknown. To say nothing of Luther's letters, edited 
by De Wette, and of Melancthon's, by Bretschneider, without 
which no good biography of Luther can be written, elaborate 
historical essays, almost without number, on points connected 
with the life of the Reformer have been published within a 
few years in Germany, of which hardly a trace can be found 
in English or American books. The year 1846, the third 
centennial of Luther's death, was, in this respect, unusually 
prolific. In the recent histories, too, of old towns and cities, 
in the publications of learned societies, in the later critical 
biographies of many of the associates and contemporaries of 
the Reformer, and in several special and general histories 
relating to the affairs of Germany in that period, important 
additions have been made to our knowledge of the life and 
times of Luther. 

About three years ago, the Committee of Publication of the 
American Sunday-school Union applied to the writer to pre- 
pare a life of Luther, to be published under the auspices of 
that society. Having, from the time of my temporary resi- 
dence in Germany, in the years 1834-5, when my historical 
studies, under the guidance of Neander, commenced, con- 



4 



PREFACE. 



tracted some familiarity with the writings of Luther, and 
with the history of his age, I was induced by my historical 
tastes, and my interest in the Reformer, some of whose minor 
works I had edited, no less than by the hope of doing a ser- 
vice to the young, to engage in the undertaking. During 
this interval of three years, nearly all the works, amounting 
to some hundreds of volumes, which cast new light on the 
subject in hand, have been carefully examined. Many new 
facts have been brought together, and many obscurities re- 
moved, while not a few apocryphal accounts have been dis- 
carded. 

Persons who are conversant with the sources of information 
will not complain that the admirable work of Jurgens on the 
youth of Luther should be followed, so far as it extends. No 
other single work, except Luther's letters, has been used so 
much as this. But from the year 1517, to Luther's death in 
1546, no such explorer and guide could be found. Fortu- 
nately, from that date, Luther is his own best biographer. 
The five large volumes of his published letters, with the sup- 
plementary collections, embrace the history of this period of 
his life with remarkable fulness of detail. The fact that no 
life of the Reformer had been written, in which was incorpo- 
rated the body of materials contained in his correspondence, 
determined the mind of the writer to make that correspondence 
a subject of particular study with reference to his object. The 
new coloring which would hereby be given to the narrative 
would, it was believed, render it both more truthful and more 
interesting. Luther would appear in his own dress. His 
thoughts, expressed in his own words, would reveal his true 
character as nothing else would. Never could such a plan 
be more justifiable than in the case of one so accustomed as 
he was, to give unreserved freedom to his tongue and pen, 
and to speak out all that was in his heart. Indeed, so per- 
fectly does the character of the individual shine forth in his 
own utterances and actions that a separate portraiture of it 
has been omitted as superfluous. 



PREFACE. 



5 



It will, I trust, appear that the author has had no theory 
to establish, no secret purpose to answer, but has studiously 
laboured to set forth Luther in his real character. His faults 
have not been concealed, nor his virtues wittingly overdrawn. 
It seemed irreverent to interrupt the solemn voice of history, 
and ill-advised to imitate the example of those who transfigure 
imperfect and erring men into pure saints, for the blind 
homage of the ignorant and credulous. 

In order to give full relief to the picture of Luther's youth 
and early manhood, for the benefit of the young reader, it was 
necessary to abridge the latter part of his life. This design 
was favoured by the consideration that Luther's later years 
were involved in controversies, which it would be improper 
to perpetuate in the publications of the Union. Indeed the 
biographical interest sensibly abates at the point where it 
begins to expand into general history, a circumstance which 
would of itself justify the limited plan of the present work. 

B. Sears. 

Newton Centre, Jan. 21, 1850. 

1* 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

from luther's birth till the beginning of the 
reformation in 1517. 

CHAPTER I. 

Page 

Luther's Boyhood to the Fourteenth Year of his Age, when 

he left his Father's House 11 

CHAPTER H. 

Luther at the Schools of Magdeburg and Eisenach, and at 

the University of Erfurt, from 1497 to 1505 47 

CHAPTER III. 
Luther in the Cloister at Erfurt, from 1505 to 1508 ... 70 

CHAPTER IV. 

Luther as Professor in Wittenberg, till the Beginning of 

the Reformation in 1517 126 

7 



8 



CONTENTS. 



PART II. 

FROM THE PUBLISHING OF THE THESES IN 1517, TO THE 
DEATH OF LUTHER IN 1546. 

CHAPTER L 

l'agn. 

The Opening of the Reformation, 1517, till the Time of 



the Leipsic Disputation in 1518 194 

CHAPTER II. 
The Leipsic Disputation 290 

CHAPTER HI. 
Luther and the Diet of Worms 326 

CHAPTER IV. 

Prom Luther's Capture to the Close of the Peasants' War, 

1521—1525 353 

CHAPTER V. 



Luther's Character as it appears in some particular Spheres 

of Action not included in the General Narrative . . . 406 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Principal Events of Luther's Life, from his Marriage 

in 1525 to his Death in 1546 448 



DESCRIPTION OP ENGRAVINGS. 



Page 5. The Augusteum, or University, on the left, and Me- 
lancthon's house towering high on the right. 

Page 11. Taken from a medal struck in Saxony, in the year 1617, 
the first Jubilee of the Reformation. It represents Luther taking a 
bushel from a lamp or candle — a symbol of the gospel, as is inti- 
mated by the open Bible at the side, and the name of Jehovah above, 
in Hebrew letters. 

Page 47. Taken from a medal struck by the city of Worms 
in 1617. It represents a burning candle standing upon an open 
Bible, with a serpent endeavouring to extinguish it, and a hand from 
the clouds pointing to it, and intimating that divine strength feeds 
the flame. The medal itself has a Latin inscription — signifying, 
"0 Lord! let it shine on for ever." 

Page 51. Entrance to Luther's House in Wittenberg, with " 1540' ; 
inscribed at the top. 

Page 60. Luther's House, or the Old Augustinian Cloister. His 
apartment was in the second story, connected with the second and 
third windows from the right. The entrance was at the door on 
the right of the tower and near by it. 

Page 61. The Ninety-five Theses of Luther on Indulgences, posted 
up on the door of the Electoral Church at Wittenberg. The hammer 
is lying at his feet. 

Page 125. Luther's Monument, erected in 1817 — 1821, in the 
Market-place at Wittenberg. 

Page 126. Jubilee-medal struck in Saxony, in 1617, representing 
the Elector, Frederick the Wise, in his robes of office, holding a 
sword in his right hand, and pointing with his left to the name of 
Jehovah. By his side stands Luther, holding a burning light in his 
right hand, and with the left pointing to the Bible. On the table- 
cloth is seen the Elector's coat of arms. 

Page 193. A rear-view of the Parochial or City Church in Wit- 
tenberg, where Luther commonly preached. 

9 



10 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGRAVINGS. 



Page 194. From a medal of the second Jubilee of the Reformation, 
in 1717, in Saxe-Weisenfels. It represents the Church founded upon 
a rock — the waves of the ocean dashing wildly around it. 

Page 289. Gate of the Church of All-Saints, or the Palace Church. 

Page 290. Luther's seal, described by himself, page 497. 

Page 318. Taken from a medal struck by the City of Nuremberg, 
in 1717, representing a Bible open to the passage — " The word of 
the Lord endureth for ever." V. D. M. I. M. are the initials of the 
same words in Latin — " Verbum Dei Manet In .ZEternum." On the 
left of the Bible is a mason's plummet-rule or level, with reference 
to the passage (Gal. vi. 16): "As many as walk according to this 
rule, peace be on them and mercy," &c. 

Page 325. The Electoral or All-saints' Church at Wittenberg, de- 
scribed on page 134. 

Page 326. The Double-headed Eagle and Crown represent the 
German Empire. 

Page 352. The Yard or Court of the Elector's Castle at Wittenberg. 

Page 353. Taken from a medal struck in Saxony, in 1617, repre- 
senting a brick-kiln on the left ; on the right, the brazen serpent, 
or serpent on the cross, and the name of Jehovah with a pillar of 
cloud between. The meaning is, that as Moses conducted the chil- 
dren of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, so did Luther conduct the 
people of God from papal captivity. 

Page 405. The Castle of the Elector at Wittenberg. 

Page 406. Taken from a medal struck at Halle, in Suabia, in 
1617, resembling that on page 326; except that it has the city 
arms or seal. 

Page 447. Chapel Corpus Christi (Body of Christ), one of the 
oldest public buildings in Wittenberg. 

Page 448. From a medal of Saxe-Gotha, struck in 1717, repre- 
senting a palm-tree among thorns, and yet nourishing. Its emble- 
matical import, as applied to the church, is obvious. Upon the medal 
itself is inscribed a verse from Ovid — " Vixi annos bis centum, nunc 
tertia vivitur setas" — " I have lived two centuries, and am now liv- 
ing in the third." 



PART 1. 



FROM LUTHER'S BIRTH TILL THE BEGINNING OF THE 
REFORMATION IN 1517. 



CHAPTER I. 

luther's boyhood to the fourteenth year of his age, 
when he left his father's house. 

Section I. — Lutliers Birth-place and Parentage. 

OME twenty-five 
miles north-west of 
Leipsic is situated 
the old town of 
Halle, on the Saale. 
From this town, the 
road running to the 
west, after crossing 
a fertile plain, leads 
to a romantic spot, 
at a distance of ten 
miles, where the 
hills of south-western Saxony begin to rise, and the 
flat lands extending all the way from the Baltic 
Sea reach their termination. Here the road, 
passing between two beautiful sheets of water, 
the one fresh and the other salt, enters a vale, 
with ranges of vine-clad hills on either side, 
which becomes wider and wider, till at the dis- 
tance of nearly ten miles it contracts again, and 

11 




12 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1483-1497. 



the heights that bounded it converge and form 
the varied and pleasant scenery of Eisleben, once 
the capital of the county of Mansfeld. 

As the traveller enters this town, he leaves, on 
the left, before proceeding very far, the house 
where Luther was born, now converted into an 
edifice for the accommodation of an orphan school. 
In the same quarter of the city, a few rods to the 
east, is St. Peter's Church, where, according to 
the custom of the times, the boy was, on the very 
next day after his birth, baptized, and christened 
Martin, as that happened to be St. Martin's day. 
This circumstance is highly characteristic of the 
religious sentiments of that age. The senses and 
the imagination were employed, more perhaps 
than the heart, in the service of religion. The 
infant child was to be brought at once, in imagi- 
nation at least, into connection with a saint ; and 
it was believed that an association of the name 
would be adapted to awaken in him a correspond- 
ing association of ideas. The font which was 
used on that occasion is still shown to the curious 
traveller. 

t Leaving these places and passing directly on, 
about half-way through the town, the visiter will 
reach the point where a broad street, coming from 
the left, meets at right-angles with the one he is 
in. Turning in that direction, he will see most of 
the city tying before him, on a rising eminence. 
At a little distance stands, on the left, the old and 
someAvhat stately house in which Luther died. 
On the other side of the street, a few rods above, 
is to be seen the church in which he preached his 



M. 1-13.] BIRTH-PLACE AND PARENTAGE. 13 

last sermon, the very pulpit in which he stood 
being still preserved. 

Let us now look for that district in Thuringia, 
or Western Saxony, where the ancestors of 
Luther resided. We will imagine ourselves at 
the castle of Wartburg, about seventy-five miles 
south-west of Eisleben, and about twenty-five 
west of Erfurt. Before us, as we face the east, 
we shall have Eisenach, in a valley, almost at our 
feet ; and along the hills and dales beyond, Gotha, 
Erfurt, Weimar and Jena, lying respectively at 
distances of about twelve or fourteen miles from 
each other. To the left, toward Eisleben, we 
look directly across four or five ranges of hills, 
which run parallel with the Thuringian Forest, 
with long narrow vales between them. To the 
right, or in a south-easterly direction, lies the 
Thuringian Forest itself — a romantic range of 
hills or mountains, extending about forty miles. 
Through all this tract of country were scattered 
different branches of the family which bore the 
name of Luther. 

Directly south from Wartburg, on the south- 
western declivity of the forest, on the way to 
Salzungen, lies the hamlet of Mora, where was 
the homestead of that branch of the family from 
which Martin Luther sprung. Here the grand- 
father, Heine Luther, had a small farm, which he 
seems to have left to his eldest son Heinz or 
Henry Luther, the uncle of Martin. While Heinz 
received the small estate and assumed the main- 
tenance of his parents, Hans or John, Martin 
Luther's father, appears to have been dependent 



14 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[148&-1497. 



upon his own industry for his livelihood. The 
most probable opinion is, that not long after his 
marriage he removed to Eisleben, in order to en- 
gage in the business of mining. From the Hartz 
Mountains, lying to the north-west, between Eisle- 
ben and Hanover, there runs a vein of copper with 
a small ingredient of silver, passing through Mans- 
feld and extending to Eisleben. At this last 
place, Hans Luther, Martin's father, took up his 
first residence after leaving Mora ; and during 
this residence Martin Luther was born, Novem- 
ber 10, 1483. 

The story to which Seckendorf gave currency, 
on the authority of a writer too late by a century 
to be a witness, namely, that Luther was born 
while his parents, yet residents of Mora, were at- 
tending a fair at Eisleben, is not only improbable 
in itself, as D'Aubigne well remarks, but has been 
proved to be untrue from the fact, that fairs were 
never held at Eisleben in the month of November. 
Melancthon, the best authority on this subject, 
says : " The parents of Luther first dwelt in the 
town of Eisleben, where Luther was born, and 
afterward they went to Mansfeld." This view 
is confirmed by Hatzeberger's Manuscript, which 
says : " Forasmuch as the mining business had for 
many years been in a prosperous state in the 
county of Mansfeld, Hans Luther, with his wife 
Margaret, betook himself to that place, and gave 
himself, according to his best ability, to mining, 
till he became owner of a share in the mines and 
of a foundry. There, in the town of Eisleben, in 
the year 1483, was his son Martin Luther born, 



JE. 1-13.] 



BIRTH-PLACE AND PARENTAGE. 



15 



.... but the elder Luther, Hans, removed with 
his household to Mansfeld, and was, on account 
of his knowledge and industry in mining, much 
beloved of the old Count Gunther." 

The report that Luther's father fled to Eisjeben 
in consequence of having killed a person at Mora, 
was undoubtedly got up at a later period by the 
Papists, in order to throw discredit upon the He- 
formation. Eisleben, which has now a population 
of about seven thousand, was, at that time, the 
largest town of the territory of the Counts of 
Mansfeld.* 

As Luther passed only about half a year of his 
earliest infancy in Eisleben, it was only the asso- 
ciations of his mind and subsequent connections 
with this place that could have any influence upon 
him. Indeed, it may be said that Eisleben owes 
more to Luther than Luther to Eisleben. He 
always cherished an affection for the place, and 
had Avarm and intimate friends there ; and the 
very last act of his life was, to make arrange- 
ments for establishing a Latin high-school in Eisle- 
ben, which soon numbered seven hundred pupils, 
and has not only existed, but flourished from that 
time to the present. 

After about six months' residence at Eisleben 
from the time of Luther's birth, his parents re- 
moved to Mansfeld, six miles to the north-west, 
of which the present population is about twelve 



The independent county of Mansfeld was a small irregular tract, 
lying between Halle and Nordhausen, not extending forty miles in 
any direction ; and yet D'Aubigne says Mora was in it, whereas it 
was more than sixty miles from its nearest boundary. 



16 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1483-1497. 



hundred and fifty. Though this was a much 
smaller place than the former, it was the resi- 
dence of the various branches of the family of the 
Counts of Mansfeld. The castle, now in ruins, 
stood upon a rocky eminence on the south, and 
overlooked the vale in which the town was situ- 
ated. The scenery, in and around the place where 
Luther spent the first thirteen years of his fife, 
was rather wild and romantic. The country, 
though not mountainous, is elevated and hilly; 
partly cultivated; partly covered with pine forests, 
and partly a bald and sterile rock. The pits and 
slag lying on the surface indicate at once that it 
is a mining district. To the south-east, toward 
Eisleben, an extensive, varied and smiling land- 
scape meets the eye. In the time of Luther's 
childhood, Mansfeld was a place of active busi- 
ness. Money, in considerable quantities, was 
coined from the silver ore ; and the copper worked 
in those mines led to commercial intercourse with 
the larger places of trade in the south of Ger- 
many, and with Venice. It was undoubtedly the 
prospect of doing better in his business that in- 
duced the miner, Hans Luther, to leave Eisleben, 
and settle at Mansfeld ; and the result justified 
his expectation. For we find him at a later period 
rising, if not to affluence, to a state of comfort and 
respectability. He became the owner of a house 
and two furnaces, and left, at his death, besides 
these, about one thousand dollars in money. He 
was so much esteemed, that he was made a mem- 
ber of the town council. 



JE. 1-13.] 



PARENTAGE. 



IT 



Section II. — Character of Luther's Parents, and their Con- 
dition during his Boyhood. 

Luther always spoke of himself and of his an- 
cestors as belonging to the peasantry. " I am a 
peasant's son. My father, my grandfather, and 
my forefathers were all true peasants. After- 
ward my father went to Mansfeld, and became 
an ore-digger." As it has been already intimated, 
Luther's father, after he became a miner, rose by 
industry and effort from the condition of a peasant 
to that of a burgher or free citizen. He com- 
menced his career at Mansfeld in penury, but with 
a force of character that could not leave him in 
that state. " My parents," says Luther, " were, 
in the beginning, right poor. My father was a 
poor mine-digger,* and my mother did carry her 
wood on her shoulders; and after this sort did 
they support us, their children. They had a 
sharp, bitter experience of it; no one would do 
likewise noAv." 

It was not till about seventeen years afterward, 
when Luther was a member of the university, 
that his father had the means of paying the ex- 
penses of his education. f His honesty, good 
sense, energy and decision of character won for 

* Hauer, a word which has often been misunderstood as meaning 
a wood-cutter . It is time this mistake was corrected in the English 
and American writers on Luther. 

f Michelet is evidently in an error when he speaks of the parents 
being "in the enjoyment of a small property, for which they were 
no doubt indebted to their son" The position of the father in society 
at Mansfeld, long before Luther's celebrity, the liberal support which 



18 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1488-1497. 



him the respect of his fellow-citizens. He was 
open-hearted and frank, and was wont to follow 
the convictions of his understanding, fearless of 
consequences. His firmness was characterized by 
severity, sometimes approaching to obstinacy. In 
his actions which are known to us, he appears 
clear-headed and decided, going right forward to 
his object. His son's bold and unwavering course 
after committing himself to the work of reform, 
was just to his mind. In the very midst of the 
Peasants' War, which the enemies of Luther said 
was caused by him, his father advised him to take 
the bold, and, at that time, even hazardous step 
of trampling on the vow of celibacy, and, in that 
way, bearing his most decided testimony against 
the pretended sanctity of a monastic life. 

Hans Luther was strictly religious in his cha- 
racter, but, at the same time, had the good sense 
(so rare in that age) to distinguish religion from 
monasticism, upon which he looked with suspi- 
cion and aversion. Hence he was highly dis- 
pleased when his son became a monk, and it was 
two years before a reconciliation was effected, and 
even then his opinion remained unchanged. When 
Martin left the monastic life, as he afterward says, 
" My father was heartily glad, for that he well 



he is known to have given his son while at the university, his ap- 
pearance with an attendance of twenty horsemen at the time of 
Martin's consecration as priest, the present of thirty guldens then 
made, and Luther's own poverty up to the time of the father's death, 
all forbid such a conjecture. Besides, the early biographers of 
Luther, who were his intimate friends, testify directly to the 
contrary. 



M. 1-13.] 



PARENTAGE. 



19 



knew the wicked cunning of the monks." Me- 
lancthon describes him as being "a magistrate at 
Mansfeld, beloved of all for the honesty of his 
character." Mathesius, who had lived in the 
family of Luther, represents the father as "pat- 
terning the widow of Sarepta, and training up his 
son in the fear of the Lord." 

Of the history of Luther's mother less is known. 
Her maiden name was Margaret Linclemann. She 
was born at Neustadt, a small town directly south 
of Eisenach, and west of Gotha. Her father, who 
had been a burgher there, had removed from that 
place to Eisenach. It was, no doubt, here that 
Luther's father formed an acquaintance with her. 
The circumstance that three of her brothers were 
liberally educated would seem to indicate that she 
belonged to an intelligent family. Melancthon 
says, " She had many virtues agreeing to her 
sex ; and was especially notable for her chaste 
conversation, godly fear, and diligent prayer, in- 
somuch that other honourable women looked upon 
her as a model of virtue and honesty." That her 
piety was strongly tinged with the superstitions 
of the times, and had a monastic severity, is 
proved by a variety of incidental remarks found 
in the writings of Luther. On one occasion he 
says, " My mother's strait and rigorous carriage 
toward me served, afterward, to make me fly to a 
cloister and become a monk." 

As one of the most important objects aimed at 
in this biography, is to trace out the causes that 
operated in the formation of Luther's character ; 
and as the incidents of his early life have been 



20 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1483-1 49V. 



very sparingly handed down to us, it will be re- 
quisite to direct attention successively to the cha- 
racter of the various influences that acted upon 
him ; and then to collect from the scenes of com- 
mon life, in the time and places of his education, 
and from his own frequent allusion to them in his 
later writings, as many collateral rays of light as 
possible, and concentrate them on the points in 
question. In this way, we can, in no small de- 
gree, fill up the chasm which has so long existed 
in respect to his early history. 

Section III. — Luther's Domestic Education. 

Luther's parents bestowed great care upon his 
early training. In the strictest sense, he was 
brought up in the fear of God, and with reverence 
for the then existing institutions of religion. The 
intentions of his parents were of the most laud- 
able character ; the faults of their discipline were 
those of the age in which they lived. They were 
highly conscientious, earnest and zealous in the 
discharge of their parental duties. But the age 
was one of rudeness and severity, and they them- 
selves had more talent than culture, more force 
and sternness of character than skill in awakening 
and fostering the generous impulses of childhood. 
Their discipline was, almost exclusively, one of 
law and authority. The consequence was, that 
Martin, instead of feeling at ease and gamboling 
joyfully in their presence, became timid and shy, 
and was kept in a state of alarm, which closed up 
the avenues of his warm and naturally confiding 



m. i-i3.] 



DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 



21 



heart. " Once," says he, " did my father beat me 
so sharply that I fled away from him, and was 
angry against him ; till, by diligent endeavour, he 
gained me back." " Once did my mother, for a 
small nut, beat me till the blood came forth." 
" Their intent and purpose were of the best sort ; 
but they knew not how to put a difference between 
dispositions, and to order their disciphne accord- 
ingly; for that it should be exercised in a way 
that the apple might be put with the rod." 

To this rigid domestic disciphne is to be traced, 
in a measure, his being long subject to sudden 
alarms, or being harsh and violent when he rose 
above them. Though in later life he was fully 
aware that many errors had been committed in his 
domestic training, and though, as he himself says, 
he tried in vain to remove the ill effects of it upon 
his feelings and habits, still he found in it much 
more to approve than to condemn. Alluding to 
his own case, and that of others of his age, he 
says : " Children should not be entreated too ten- 
derly of their parents, but should be forced to 
order and to submission, as ivere their parents he- 
fore them'.' 

The fact that, from three or four brothers, Mar- 
tin alone was designated for a liberal education, is 
sufficient proof that he gave some early indications 
of talent. It is also evident, that the father took 
a religious view of this subject, and desired for his 
son something higher and better than mere worldly 
distinction. An early writer states, that he had 
heard from the relations of Luther at Mansfeld, 
that the father was often known to pray earnestly 



22 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1483-1497. 



at the bedside of his son, that God would bless 
him and make him useful. Mathesius says, that 
Luther's father, not only for his own gratification, 
but especially for the benefit of his son, frequently 
invited the clergymen and school-teachers of the 
place to his house. Thus were domestic influ- 
ences brought in aid, in every suitable way, to 
form a taste for moral and intellectual culture. 
Well would it be for the world, if others, in more 
eligible circumstances and in more enlightened 
times, would besfcnv similar care and attention 
upon training up a son of special promise in such 
a way that he may become a public benefactor. 
This is what Monica did for Augustine ; Arethusa 
for Chrysostom, and Basil's and Gregory Nazian- 
zen's parents for them, and, through them, for the 
world. 

Section IV. — Luther in the School at Mans/eld. 

Mansfeld was situated in a narrow valley along 
the brook Thalbach, skirted by hills on both sides. 
From that part of the town where Luther's father 
resided, it was some distance to the school-house, 
which was situated on a hill. The house is still 
standing, and the first story of it remains unal- 
tered. One writer says, (on what authority we 
do not know,) that Luther commenced going to 
school at the age of seven. Certainly he was so 
young that he was carried thither b}^ older per- 
sons. When forty-four years old, two years be- 
fore his death, he wrote on the blank leaf in the 
Bible of Nicholas Oemler, who had married one of 



JE. 1-13.] 



AT SCHOOL. 



23 



his sisters, the twenty-fourth verse of the four- 
teenth chapter of John, and under it : " To my 
good old friend, Nicholas Oemler, who did, more 
than once, carry me in his arms to school and back 
again, when I was a small lad, neither of us then 
knowing that one brother-in-law was carrying an- 
other in his arms." In this school, though its 
teachers were frequently guests at his father's 
house, he was brought under a much harsher dis- 
cipline than he had been subject to, at home. It 
was not without allusion to his own experience, 
that he afterward speaks of a class of teachers, 
" who hurt noble minds by their vehement storm- 
ing, beating and pounding, wherein they treat 
children as a jailer doth convicts." He some- 
where says, that he was once flogged fifteen times 
in a single forenoon at school. Again, he says, 
" I have seen, when I was a boy, divers teachers 
who found their pleasure in beating their pupils." 
" The schools were purgatories, and the teachers 
were tyrants and task-masters." 

The injurious manner in which such treatment 
acted upon his fears is illustrated by an anecdote 
related by Luther in his Commentary on Genesis. 
"When I was a lad, I was wont to go out with 
my companions begging food for our sustentation 
while we were at the school. At Christmas, 
during divine service, we went around among 
the small villages, singing from house to house, in 
four parts as we were wont, the hymn on the 
child Jesus, born at Bethlehem. We came by 
chance before the hut of a peasant who lived apart 
at the end of the village ; and when he heard us 



24 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1483-1497. 



singing, he came out, and, after the coarse and 
harsh manner of the peasants, said, 6 Where are 
you, boys?' at the same time bringing us a few 
sausages in his hand. But we were so terrified 
at these words, that we all scampered off, though 
we knew no good reason why, save that, from the 
daily threats and tyranny practised by the teachers 
toward their pupils at that time, we had learned 
to be timid." This incident, which has commonly 
been referred to the time when Luther was at 
Magdeburg, probably belongs to the period of his 
earlier childhood at Mansfeld; for it was when 
he was "a small boy," and was under severe 
teachers, which seems not to have been the case 
except at Mansfeld. The circumstance that Lu- 
ther was then living at his father's house will be 
no objection, if we consider the customs of the 
times and the poverty of the family at that early 
period. We are elsewhere informed that Luther 
was then accustomed to attend funeral processions 
as a singer, for which he received a groschen 
(about three cents) each time. 

The school at Mansfeld, at that time, was taught 
by one master, assisted by two members of the 
church choir, that is, two theological students, 
who, for a small stipend, attended on the daily ser- 
vices of the church. Here it becomes necessary 
to describe the character of the lower schools of 
Germany at the close of the fifteenth century. 
They were called "trivial schools," because ori- 
ginally the first three of the seven liberal arts, 
namely, grammar, rhetoric and logic, were taught 
in them. 



JE. 1-13.] 



AT SCHOOL. 



25 



At this time, however, and particularly at Mans- 
feld, a little monkish Latin, the pieces of music 
commonly sung at church, and the elements of 
arithmetic, constituted the studies of the lower 
schools. These schools were all taught by a 
master, assisted by theological students and candi- 
dates for some of the lower clerical offices. But 
as nearly all the offices of state at that time were 
in the hands of the clergy, there was a general 
rush to the schools on the part of all who were 
seeking to rise above the common walks of life. 
The great mass of the youth were wholly desti- 
tute of education. All the others, except a few 
from the sons of the rich, went through a clerical 
or ecclesiastical course of instruction. No mat- 
ter to what offices they were aspiring, they must 
study under the direction of the church, and 
under the tuition of monks and priests, or candi- 
dates for the priestly office. The character, how- 
ever, both of pupils and of teachers in these 
schools, was as unclerical as could well be con- 
ceived. The schools were properly in the charge 
either of the bishop and the canons of his chap- 
ter, or of the monks ; and hence they formed two 
classes, and were called cathedral and monastic 
schools. But these ecclesiastics and friars be- 
came indolent, and employed cheap substitutes as 
teachers, ar.d lived in ease and in plenty. " The 
drones," says Luther, when speaking on this 
point, " drove the honey-bees out of the hive ; 
and monk and canon divided the pay with the 
poor schoolmaster, as the beggar did, who pro- 
mised to share equally with the church the half 



20 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1483-1497. 



of what he received, and gave the outward half 
of nuts and the inner half of dates for pious uses, 
and consumed the residue himself." 

The arrangements of the schools were these : 
The teachers, and the pupils who were from 
abroad, occupied large buildings with gloomy cells. 
A sombre monastic dress distinguished them both 
from other persons. A large portion of the fore- 
noon of each day was devoted to the church. At 
high mass all must be present. The boys were 
educated to perform church ceremonies, while but 
little attention was given to what is now com- 
monly taught in schools. The assistant teachers, 
candidates for the clerical office, generally taught 
a few hours in the day, and performed, at the 
same time, some daily inferior church service, for 
both of which they received but a trifling reward. 

Thus the schools were but a part and parcel of 
the church. The assistants w r ere commonly taken 
from those strolling young men who infested the 
country, going from place to place either as ad- 
vanced students, and changing their place at plea- 
sure, or seeking some subordinate employment in 
the schools or in the church. When they failed 
to find employ, they resorted to begging, and 
even to theft, to provide for their subsistence. 
The older students would generally seek out each 
a young boy as his ward, and initiate him into 
the mysteries of this vagrant mode of life, re- 
ceiving in turn his services in begging articles of 
food, and in performing other menial offices. 

We have a living picture of the manners and 
habits w T hich prevailed in these schools, in the 



JE. 1-13.] 



AT SCHOOL. 



21 



autobiography of Thomas Platter, a contempo- 
rary of Luther and a native of Switzerland. "At 
that time," that is, in his tenth year, he says in 
his biography, " came a cousin of mine, who had 
been at the schools [to become a priest] in Ulm 
and Munich in Bavaria. My friends spake to 
him of me, and he promised to take me with him 
to the schools in Germany; for I had learned of 
the village priest to sing a few of the church 
hymns. When Paul (for that was my cousin's 
name) was ready to go on his way, my uncle 
gave me a gulden, [sixty-three cents,] which I 
put into the hands of Paul. I must promise that 
I would do the begging, and give what I got to 
him, my bacchant, [protector,] for his disposal. 
We journeyed to Zurich, where Paul would wait 
till he should be joined by some companions. 
Then we determined to set out for Misnia, [in the 
present kingdom of Saxony.] Meanwhile I went 
a-begging, and thus furnished the sustentation of 
Paul. After tarrying eight or nine weeks, we left 
Zurich and went on our way to Misnia, in a com- 
pany of eight, whereof three of us were young 
schiitze, [wards ;] the rest were large bacchantes, 
as they are called. Of all the wards I was the 
youngest. When I was so weary that I could 
hardly go, my cousin Paul would go behind me 
and scourge me on my bare legs, for I had no 
hose and only poor shoes. While on the way, I 
heard the bacchantes tell how that in Misnia and 
Silesia the scholars were wont to steal geese and 
ducks and other things for food, and that no other 
notice was taken thereof, if one could but only 



£8 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1483-1497. 



escape from the owners. Then said I to my 
companions, 6 When shall we come to Misnia, 
where I may go out stealing geese ?' They re- 
plied, 'We are already there.' We went 

to Halle in Saxony, and there we joined our- 
selves to the school of St. Ulrich. But as our 
bacchantes entreated us roughly, some of us com- 
muned on the matter with my cousin Paul, and 
we agreed together that we would run away from 
them, and depart to Dresden. Here we found 
no good school, and the houses, moreover, were 
infested with vermin. Wherefore we went from 
that place to Breslau. We suffered much in the 
way from hunger, having on certain days nothing 
to eat but raw onions with salt. We slept often- 
times in the open air, because we could not get 
an entrance into the houses, but were driven off, 
and sometimes the dogs were set upon us. When 
we came to Breslau we found abundant stores, 
and food was so cheap that some of our company 
surfeited themselves and fell sick. We went at 
the first into the school at the dome [cathedral] 
of the Holy Cross ; but learning that there were 
some Switzer youth in the parish of St. Elizabeth, - 
we removed thither. The city of Breslau hath 
seven parishes, with a school in each. No scholar 
is suffered to go around singing in another parish ; 
and if any one taketh upon him to do so, he getteth 
a round beating. Sometimes, it is said, sundry 
thousands of scholars are found in Breslau, who 
get their living by begging. Some bacchantes 
abide in the schools twenty and even thirty years, 
having their sustentation from what their wards 



M. 1-13.] AT SCHOOL AT MANSFELD. 29 

beg. I have oftentimes borne five or six loads 
home to the school the selfsame evening for my 
bacchantes; for, being small, and a Switzer be- 
sides, I was kindly received by the people. . . . 
In the winter, the small boys were wont to sleep 
on the floor of the school-house, the bacchantes in 
the mean season sleeping in the cells, whereof 
there are not a few hundreds at the school of St.' 
Elizabeth. In the warm parts of the year, we 
were wont to lie on the ground in the church- 
yard ; and when it rained, to run into the school- 
house, and, if it stormed vehemently, to sing re- 
sponses and other pieces the whole night with 
the sub-chanter. Oftentimes after supper, in the 
summer evenings, did Ave go into the beer-houses 
to buy beer, and sometimes would drink so much 
that we could not find our way back. To be short, 
there was plenty of food, but not much studying 
here. At St. Elizabeth's, nine bachelors did teach 
every day, one hour each in the selfsame room. 
The Greek tongue was not studied at all. No 
printed books did the students have of their own. 
The preceptor alone had an imprinted Terence. 
What should be read was at the first dictated 
and copied, and then construed and explicated, so 
that the bacchantes bore away great heaps of 
manuscripts." 

It was from such strolling bacchantes as are here 
portrayed to the life by Platter, that the assistant 
teachers were taken, who assumed the name of 
locati (located or selected) when they obtained a 
place. Their education consisted of a knowledge 
of the church service, of church music, of a little 

3* 



30 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1483-1407 



Latin, and of writing and arithmetic. Their cha- 
racter corresponded to that of the church at large 
in that rude and licentious age. They were, for 
the most part, mere adventurers and vagabonds, 
neither loving nor understanding the art of teaching 
any better than they did the nature of true reli- 
gion, whose servants they professed to be. They 
remained but a short time in a place, never pre- 
tended to study the character and disposition of 
their pupils, taught mechanically, and ruled not 
by affection but by brute and brutal force. The 
greater part of what they taught was nearly use- 
less. Study was a mere exercise of the memory. 

The school at Mansfeld was no exception to the 
general character of the schools in the smaller 
towns at that time. We are not left to conjecture 
whether Luther was familiar with such scenes as 
have been alluded to. Speaking, at a later period 
of life, on the duty of maintaining good public 
schools, he says, somewhat indignantly : " Such 
towns as will not have good teachers, now that 
they can be gotten, ought, as formerly, to have 
locati and bacchantes, stupid asses, who cost money 
enough and yet teach their pupils nothing save to 
become asses like themselves." "Not a single 
branch of study," says he, in another place, " was 
at that time taught as it should be." Referring 
to their brutality, he says, " When they could not 
vent their spleen against the higher teachers, they 
would pour it out upon the poor boys." 

In respect to the studies of Luther at Mansfeld, 
which continued up to his fourteenth year, Mathe- 
sius, his intimate friend, says he learned there 



JE. 1-13.] 



AT SCHOOL AT MANSFELD. 



31 



" his Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the 
Lord's Prayer, Donatus, the Child's Grammar, 
Cisio Janus, and church music." Donatus was to 
the Latin grammar of the Middle Ages what Mur- 
ray has been to English grammar. Cisio Janus 
are the first words of a church calendar in monk- 
ish Latin verse, made up of mutilated words, cisio 
standing for circumcisio, (circumcision.) Next to 
monastic works, Terence and Plautus, the two Ro- 
man comedians, were most studied, as they fur- 
nished the readiest means of learning the colloquial 
Latin, so important to the clergy at that time. 

Luther laments that he had not, in those schools 
which he attended in his boyhood, " read the poets 
and historians, ivhich no one taught him " instead 
of Avhich he " learned with great labour what with 
equal labour he now had to unlearn." "Is it not 
plain," he somewhere says, "that one can now 
teach a boy in three years, by the time he is fifteen 
or eighteen years old, more than was aforetime 
learned in all the universities and cloisters ? 
Twenty, yea forty years have men studied, and 
yet known neither Latin nor German, not to men- 
tion the scandalous lives which the youth there 
learned to lead." "It was pitiful enough for a 
boy to spend many years only to learn bad Latin 
sufficient for becoming a priest and for saying 
mass, and then be pronounced happy, and happy, 
too, the mother who bore him." "And he is still 
a poor ignorant creature — can neither cluck nor 
lay eggs ; and yet such are the teachers which we 
have everywhere had." 

It is impossible to read these and other similar 



32 LIFE OF LUTHER. [1483-1497. 



passages of Luther, so full of reminiscences of his 
boyhood, and compare them with the account of 
Platter's boyhood about the same time, without a 
strong conviction that they both describe very 
similar scenes, and that the one writer serves but 
to illustrate the other. What effort must it have 
cost Luther, under so great disadvantages, to learn 
what he did! Without uncommon abilities and 
perseverance, it would have been impossible. 

SECTION V. — Luther's Religious Education. 

This is one of the most important and yet most 
difficult of all the inquiries to be instituted respect- 
ing the history of the great Reformer. His cha- 
racter was formed under a variety of influences, 
each of which deserves particular notice. He was 
educated in the bosom of the Catholic church — 
the church as it was in Germany — the church as 
it was in Thuringia. He was furthermore influ- 
enced hy the personal character of his parents, 
their social relations in Mansfeld, and the charac- 
ter of his teachers and associates at Mansfeld, 
Magdeburg, Eisenach and Erfurt. On most of 
these points some valuable information has, by the 
researches of Jurgens, been placed within our reach. 

He was educated in the Papal church as it was 
about the close of the fifteenth century. And 
what were its characteristic features at that time ? 
The writings of Luther contain the answer. This 
is not the place to enter at large upon a descrip- 
tion of the Papal church, partly because the sub- 
ject is not novel, or unknown to the reader, and 



M. 1-13.] RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 33 

partly because it must necessarily be interwoven 
with all the narration of Luther's life. If, instead 
of bringing together what Luther and other wri- 
ters of that age have left recorded on this point, 
we were to present an analysis of their testimony, 
we should find that nearly all their statements 
could be reduced to the following summary : The 
Papal religion is a religion of law rather than of 
gospel; a Pelagian system of works rather than 
of divine grace ; a religion of forms more than of 
spiritual life; a religion of human rather than of 
divine mediation, priests and saints occupying the 
place belonging to our great High-priest and Sa- 
viour; a religion prescribed by the Papal hierar- 
chy rather than by the Bible ; a religion in which 
the sanctity of ceremonies and of the sacred orders 
prevailed over the sanctity of the heart and life; 
a religion of the senses and of a poetical imagina- 
tion rather than of saving faith ; and, in fine, a re- 
ligion founded more on the ignorance and super- 
stition, of the Middle Ages than on the revelation 
of the truth by Jesus Christ and his apostles. 

Luther was educated in the Papal church as it 
was in Germany. But what distinguished the 
church in Germany from that of the other nations 
of Europe, and particularly from that of Italy ? 

With the lower and middling classes in Ger- 
many, religion was, comparatively, though less 
than it should be, a matter of deep and sincere 
interest. With the Italian, it was a holiday 
amusement, merely sanctifying, by solemn cere- 
monies, a worldly and not unfrequently an unbe- 
lieving spirit. The German was superstitious, but 



84 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1483-1497. 



was at the same time sincere and earnest. The 
piety of the Italian was frivolous and superficial ; 
that of the German was serious and went to the 
heart. In the soul of the latter were deep foun- 
tains, but superstition and ignorance rendered 
their waters dark and turbid. That so many 
were found in Germany to embrace cordially the 
evangelical views of religion as soon as they were 
presented by Luther and his associates, proves 
that there was already, though smothered by the 
weight of rubbish that lay upon it, much of sin- 
cere devotional sentiment. We cannot reasonably 
suppose that all, or even the majority of the early 
followers of Luther were converted to Christ by 
his preaching and writings. That which distin- 
guished Germany from the rest of Christendom, 
therefore, was the amount of spiritual nourish- 
ment drawn from the teachings of the church, de- 
fective as they were. The floAvers were no more 
plentiful here than in other countries, but the bees 
nevertheless gathered more honey. Of this we 
have an example in the mother of Luther ; and 
she was but one of many. 

Luther was educated under that peculiar type 
of religion which prevailed in Thuringia. Here it 
was that Boniface, the Apostle of Germany, in the 
eighth century, with other missionaries from the 
British islands, carried on their most important 
operations for evangelizing Germany, founding 
there the Papal church, and thus corrupting Chris- 
tianity at its very introduction. Here was the 
great cloister of Fulda, the chief seminary of 
sacred learning, and the centre of religious influ- 



m. 1-13.] 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 



35 



ence for the surrounding country. It was in 
Thuringia that St. Elizabeth — the Thuringian land- 
gravine, whose memory lived in popular legends 
till Luther's times, and who was a favourite saint 
with him — was the embodiment of the religious 
spirit of the people, a spirit of deep sincerity 
united with childish simplicity and superstition. 
The Thuringians are proverbially an honest and 
simple-hearted people. Luther's mother appears 
to have been of this character; possessing, per- 
haps, more earnestness in matters of religion, but 
not less superstition, than others. His father was 
also a genuine Thuringian of the better sort. 

Either because Luther sympathized more readily 
with the warm and credulous piety of the mother 
than with the more sober and discriminating piety 
of the father, or because he was, in early life, 
more under the influence of the former, and of 
priests and monks who strengthened her influ- 
ence, he eagerly imbibed the popular religious 
sentiments of his neighbourhood. At Mansfeld, 
in particular, the religious views here described 
prevailed. As late as 1507, one of the Counts of 
Mansfeld made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Two 
countesses of the same family were in the nunnery 
at Eisleben during nearly all the period that Lu- 
ther remained at home with his parents. The 
cloister of Mansfeld, about two miles east of the 
town, was supposed to be the scene of several 
miracles wrought by St. Elizabeth, with all of 
which Luther was necessarily very familiar in his 
boyhood. 

The account of the Papal church in Thuringia, 



30 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1483-1497. 



given b} r Myconius, who was preacher at Gotha, 
perfectly agrees with what has here been said on 
other authorities, as do also the many incidental 
notices of it by Luther in his writings. There 
can be no doubt, therefore, that we have before 
us a true description of the religious influence 
under which Luther spent his childhood. We 
also know that his susceptible mind yielded itself 
like wax to receive the impressions which his 
mother and his religious teachers attempted to 
make. The unsuspecting and confiding simplicity 
of his character must be constantly borne in mind, 
if we would rightly interpret his actions and 
understand his history. He himself was fully 
aware of it, and said it was the cause of many 
blunders. He was, even in 1517, simple-hearted 
enough to believe that the church, and the pope 
himself, would consent to reform. 

To Albert of Mainz and other bishops he wrote 
with confidence, not doubting that they would 
readily correct the abuses of which he complained. 
How long did he deceive himself with the vain 
hope that a union with the Papal church might 
still be effected ? Those who regard Luther as a 
sort of Gregory VII., bringing about the greatest 
results by a well-planned scheme, utterly mistake 
his character. He was not a man of policy or 
calculation, but a true-hearted, conscientious man, 
a man of principle, whose great power consisted 
in doing right without regard to consequences. 
He himself says, "I once thought all that came 
unto me, professing to have a regard for the 
gospel, were godly men; but the knaves have 



JE. 1-13.] 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 



.87 



taught me to be wise. A fish is never more in 
his place than when in the water, nor a knave than 
when on the gallows." "I have become a wise 
Rupert, as the proverb is." 

Of a part of his religious education, he after- 
wards speaks with approbation; but of the rest, 
far otherwise. These are his words: "In the 
house or church of the pope was I baptized; and 
there did I learn the catechism and the Bible. . . . 
I will hold my father's house in great honour, and 
fall prostrate before it, if it will but leave me my 
Christ and my conscience without a burden." " I 
cannot set forth in a better or simpler way what 
one should believe, do, leave undone, or know in 
religion, than hath been done from the beginning in 
these three pieces, to wit, the ten commandments, 
the creed, and the Lord's prayer. . . . But these 
ought not to be taught as they were in time past, by 
making them stick only in the memory." " This 
only was taught and practised, to wit, the invok- 
ing of the Virgin Mary and other saints, as medi- 
ators and intercessors ; much fasting and praying ; 
making pilgrimages, or running into monasteries ; 
the becoming a monk, or the establishing of mass 
to be held at certain times. And while we were 
doing such-like things, we dreamed we were merit- 
ing heaven. Those were the times of darkness, 
when we knew nothing at all of God's word, but 
with our own mummery and dreamy cogitations, 
plunged ourselves and others into misery. Whereof 
I was one, and was myself bathed in this hot-bath 
of sweat and agony." 

These expressions, referring to his own experi- 



38 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1483-1407. 



ence, though they apply with chief force to his 
monastic life, run back also to those earlier teach- 
ings and impressions which conducted him to the 
monastery. " From my childhood up," he says 
still more explicitly, " I was trained after such a 
sort as to turn pale with terror when I heard so 
much as the name of Christ, for I was not other- 
wise taught than to think of him as a severe and 
angry judge, who would deal with me according 
to my merits and works. Wherefore, I was wont 
all the time to think how I might set forth many 
good works, with which to pacify Christ, my 
judge." In his commentary on the words — 
" Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with 
trembling," in the second Psalm, he remarks, 
" When I was a child I was angry at these words, 
in that I did not then know that joy and hope 
should be coupled with fear." "We were scan- 
dalously led astray in the papacy; for Christ was 
not painted out in so mild a character as he is by 
the prophets and apostles." "We were all taught 
that we must ourselves make satisfaction for our 
sins, and that, at the judgment, Christ would call 
us to an account in respect of our penances, and 
the amount of our good works. . . . And because 
we could never do penances and works enough, 
and felt nothing else but terrors and fears before 
his wrath, we were directed to the saints in hea- 
ven, as them that should be mediators between 
us and Christ. We were taught to call upon the 
mother of Christ, that, she would beseech him, by 
the breasts whereAvith she nursed him, to put 
away his anger, and show mercy. If she were 



M 1-13.] 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 



39 



not sufficient, then the apostles and other saints 
were to be invoked, till at last we came to saints 
whose sanctity was unknown, nay, who for the 
greater part never existed, as St. Anne, St. Bar- 
bara, St, Christopher, St. George, and such like." 
u I had none other knowledge of Christ, than to 
form him in my mind as sitting on a rainbow, 
and to account him as a rigorous judge. For that 
we had no true knowledge of Christ, we fell away 
from him, and cleaved to the saints, and called on 
them to be our patrons and mediators." " Espe- 
cially had we recourse to Mary, and prayed, say- 
ing, ' thou holy Virgin Mary, show thy breasts 
to Jesus Christ, thy son, and procure for me favour 
in his sight.' " Luther speaks of himself as hav- 
ing a predisposition to an ascetic, religious life. 
" I was so framed by nature, and so trained up 
in the Papal church, that I loved to fast, watch, 
pray, and accomplish pilgrimages and other good 
works, to the end that I might make recompense 
for my sins." He says, that these ideas clung to 
him long after he had renounced the doctrine, for 
" this is an inbred corruption, whereunto is super- 
added education and custom, insomuch that we are 
not only born into superstition, but, in the papacy, 
are instructed and exercised in it." 

Of the character of the preaching he heard he 
speaks thus : " The monks preached daily their 
new A'isions, dreams and fantasies, new wonders 
and tales, and that without measure. Not a monk 
if he had preached two or three years, but he 
must needs make a new sermon book, which for 
a season would reign in the pulpit, Of such 



40 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1483-1497 



books the world was full, and yet was therein 
nothing of Christ and of faith, nothing else but 
our works, merits and worshippings, with abun- 
dance of false and scandalous tales. When 
therein they did their very best, it pertained to 
supplicating saints, those of their own order not 
being forgotten, till they went so far as to portray 
before all the world the holy and excellent per- 
son, the Virgin Mary, as an intercessor for poor 
sinners even against her son, Christ. For we all 
know, and I as well as the rest, that we were 
taught to put Mary in the stead and in the office 
of Christ. . . No monk dreamed any thing, but it 
must needs come into the pulpit, and be made a 
matter of divine service. No falsehood so shame- 
ful which would not be received, if it was but 
brought into the pulpit. ... Is it not true ? Have 
we not, alas ! all had trial and experience thereof?" 

As children were ordinarily confirmed at the 
age of twelve, and brought at once to the confes- 
sional as preparatory to the supper, Luther's last 
two years at Mansfeld were undoubtedly imbit- 
tered with those superstitious fears and penances 
of which he afterward complained. While he 
was taught that baptism took away original sin, 
he was told that subsequent transgressions ex- 
tinguished that grace, and that he must regain 
his former state by penances and satisfactions. 
He says, on this point, " As soon as we had laid 
aside our infantile socks, and were scarcely out 
of the laver of regeneration, they took it all away 
again hy such teaching as this, to wit, ' Oh ! thou 
hast long since lost thy baptism, and polluted thy 



M. 1-13.] 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 



41 



baptismal robe with sin. Now thou must con- 
sider how thou canst do penance and make satis- 
faction, . . . till thou dost pacify God and come 
again to a state of grace.' " He adds that he had 
such experience before he was a monk, and that 
" by such thoughts he was driven to monasti- 
cism." From these, and many other expressions 
of his, it appears that he was a faithful and sub- 
missive disciple in the school of superstition in 
which he was so diligently trained. 

When Luther was a boy, the common belief in 
witches was at its height. Of the very celebrated 
work entitled "The Maul for Witches," (Malleus 
Maleficarum,) teaching priests and magistrates 
what rules to observe in their proceedings against 
witches, and circulated with both the papal and 
imperial sanction, three editions were printed 
while Luther was a boy, and was in his father's 
house at Mansfeld. He tells a story of a witch 
that lived near by, and used to trouble his mother 
very much ; another, of an attempt of the devil, 
in human form, to separate husband and wife ; 
and another still, of an instance where the devil 
actually entered the pulpit and preached for a 
minister. Some of these stories he seems to be- 
lieve, others he ridicules. "I myself," he ob- 
serves, " have seen monks, shameless and wicked 
fellows, who feigned to cast out the devil, and 
then to sport with him as with a child. Who 
can recount all their crafty tricks done in the 
name of Christ, of the Virgin Mary, of the holy 
cross, of St. Cyriac ?" 

Though Luther afterward became much more 



42 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1483-H07. 



enlightened on these subjects, still the supersti- 
tions in which he was educated in his childhood 
clung to him to the last. No one is ignorant of 
the story of his inkstand thrown at the devil in 
his cell in Erfurt. Though it may be an apocry- 
phal story, it still is a true illustration of the cha- 
racter of Luther. We find him afterward holding 
such language as the following : " The devil is all 
about us, though he often putteth on a mask. I 
myself have seen that he sometimes appeareth as 
if he were a swine, and sometimes as a burning 
wisp of straw." " The devil often beguileth the 
outward senses, so that men think something 
taketh place before them which doth not, ... as 
was the case in Hesse with the child that, when 
it was not dead, the devil so blinded the eyes of 
the people that they thought it to be dead. The 
devil held the child's breath, as he hath power to 
do." This is only some of the smut which ad- 
hered to Luther from the foul and smoky age in 
which he received his birth and education. If we 
are free from it, it is not owing to any individual 
superiority of our own, but to the noonday light, 
which never could have existed but for the dawn 
which preceded it. Luther and Bacon were among 
those from whom proceeded the rays of light which 
streaked the east and ushered in the day, before 
which the hobgoblins of false religion and false 
science have fled away. 

That Luther, in his boyhood, was thoroughly 
initiated into the tastes, manners and habits of 
the miners, is certain. This might be inferred 
from the fact of his being a miner's son and living 



M. 1-13.] 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 



43 



at Mansfelcl ; but we have statements in respect 
to his maturer life which can be explained on no 
other supposition. He always treated miners 
with particular attention. He was familiar with 
all their habits and even their amusements ; he 
knew their songs and their plays, and could, 
through life, entertain them as few others could. 
Mathesius, in one of his discourses on Luther's 
life, says, " To-day let us hear about Luther's love 
and affection for mining and to miners." The 
council of Wittenberg had a festival which lasted 
several days. Luther was invited to attend. But 
as he had been the means of doing away several 
Catholic festivals on account of the excesses com- 
mitted at them, he thought it imprudent to attend, 
and therefore declined the invitation. The young 
people, according to ancient custom, went about 
the streets in masks, and sought admittance to 
the houses of the citizens. "At one time," con- 
tinues Mathesius, " some of them came to Luther's 
house or cloister. But, to avoid offence and scan- 
dal, he did not admit them into his house. Albeit, 
at length, a company, disguised as miners, came 
along, with their mining hammers and a chess- 
board for their amusement. 4 Let them come in,' 
said Luther, 4 they are my countrymen, and the 
fellow-workmen of my father. Since they pass 
whole weeks under ground in a damp atmosphere 
and amid impure exhalations, we must allow them 
proper recreation.' They came, placed their chess- 
board upon his table, and he joined them. 6 Now, 
miners,' said he, 6 whosoever will go into this or 
other deep shafts and come out unharmed, or not 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1483-1497. 



close up the passage with refuse, must not have 
his eyes in his pocket, as the saying is/ Lu- 
ther easily won the game ; and they all remained, 
and, under due restraint, indulged in merriment, 
singing and frolicking, as our doctor was inclined 
to be sportive at proper times, and was not dis- 
pleased when he saw the young playful and mer- 
ry, if it was but with propriety and moderation." 
This discourse of Mathesius is full of anecdotes 
about Luther's allusions to his father's employ- 
ment, and his borrowing illustrations from it in 
his writings and conversations. 

Luther was the son of a peasant, that is, of a 
poor miner who sprung from the peasantry. How 
did this circumstance affect his character ? It had 
more effect upon his language, habits and associa- 
tions than upon his sentiments and subsequent 
standing in society. For as his father became a 
burgher and magistrate, and as he himself was a 
man of education, he came to regard society from 
a higher point of view. But born and bred as he 
was, he was never adapted to court-life. He al- 
ways appeared uneasy when speaking or writing 
to princes or nobles, not out of fear, but from a 
consciousness that he was not familiar with the 
modes of intercourse and of address customary 
among them. His language, though uncommonly 
rich and varied, and sparkling with sense and wit, 
was often homely. His illustrations were often 
drawn from common and low life. A vein of slight 
vulgarity, as well as drollery, pervades all his writ- 
ings. His pungent wit, his creative genius, and his 
sterling sense follow him everywhere. He was 



M. 1-13.] RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 45 

the man of the people, knowing all their thoughts 
and feelings, and employing all their words and 
expressions in his magnificent, but still rude elo- 
quence. 

But from the flower of his youth, through life, 
Luther was associated with burghers and attached 
to them, — the middling class between the nobles 
and the peasants, — the mercantile, enterprising, 
patriotic inhabitants of the larger towns and 
cities. To this class he was introduced, partly 
by his father's later* connections and partly by his 
own cultivated practical sense and his hearty de- 
votedness to the good of all the people. He was 
never fond of princes and nobles ; nor, on the 
other hand, of the sottish, blind and disorderly 
peasantry. In all his writings, he treats both 
classes, a few individuals excepted, somewhat 
roughly. He did not depend on either for carry- 
ing forward the Reformation, but addressed him- 
self more immediately to the magistrates and free 
denizens. He wished neither the authority of 
kings nor the violence of peasants to be brought 
to his aid, but preferred that these, no less than 
the middling classes, should be controlled by in- 
telligence and virtue. He uniformly checked the 
two former, while he directed, stimulated and 
supported the latter. 

His position as a man of education, always 
practical, led to the same results. Learning with 
him was not, as with so many others, a matter of 
profession, but a source of practical wisdom. He 
encouraged and sympathized with men of classi- 
cal learning only so far as they aided in explain- 



4(3 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1483-1497. 



ing the Scriptures and in enlightening the people. 
He wrote more and better in the language of the 
people than in the language of the learned. This 
circumstance strengthened his alliance with intel- 
ligent, active and patriotic men. Thus, when he 
came to act the part of a reformer, he occupied 
the central ground of society, the point where 
extremes meet and opposite influences neutralize 
each other. 

With this agreed his geographical position. 
Thuringia is the most German of all the German 
districts. The Saxon electorate was locally and 
politically what Virginia is in the United States, 
situated midway between the north and the south, 
having the advantage of position over either ex- 
treme. All Germany called Thuringia its own. 
It belonged to no section, but was the middle 
portion, often holding the balance of power. In 
the Middle Ages, it was neither the scholastic 
south, nor the barbarous north, but the enlight- 
ened, sober, practical district of Erfurt, and yet 
the chivalrous vicinity of the Wartburg, renowned 
in arms and in song. 

In language, too, it was near the northern verge 
of the high German, and consequently not far 
south of the line beyond which the low German 
was spoken. Had Luther lived either north or 
south of Thuringia and Saxony, he could not have 
moulded the national language as he has done ; 
nor have found the wide-spread sympathy which 
he did find ; nor have acted from the heart of the 
nation, out, to all its extremities. 



WHO accoilipaiiiuu t/uuiei ra aw juumvj 



JOURNEYto MAGDEBURG 



ClorstfrBernA 



/MAGDEBURG 



RcuVberstadt W\ 



Que d hull 



■slcbeuU UP/ f Bemb> 



C ^ {Y ojHcftstedt 



D ^ & 

\Mansfeld ~e> 



Sanger/) an seh s ^^X$£> 



Frank en hausen ° 

° Alstedt 



Halle o 



p. 45. 



JE. 13-21.] JOURNEY TO MAGDEBURG. 



47 



CHAPTER II. 



LUTHER AT THE SCHOOLS OF MAGDEBURG AND EISENACH AND 
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ERFURT, FROM 1497 TO 1505. 

Section I. — Luther 's Journey from 3fansJ "eld to Magdeburg. 



the paternal roof, and go forth, young and in- 
experienced, to try his fortune among stran- 
gers. Without money and without friends, he 
was to commit himself to the charities of mendi- 
cant monks and of the people of a great eccle- 
siastical metropolis. He did not, however, take 
his departure entirely alone. He was sent in 
company, or, as Mathesius intimates, under the 
care of John Reineck, a fellow-student of more 
experience, the son of a respectable citizen of 
Mansfeld. This friendship, formed at the school, 
lasted through life ; and it was this same person 
who accompanied Luther in his journey to the 




B lot awaited him. 



UTHER had now 
reached his four- 
teenth year, when 
the ordinary or tri- 
vial school of Mans- 
feld no longer met 
his wants. Hard 
as his life had thus 
far been, a harder 



He was to leave 



48 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1497-1505. 



diet of Worms. Luther in his correspondence 
calls him " one of his best friends," and the let- 
ters of Melancthon to him and to his distinguished 
son, educated at Wittenberg, breathe the warmest 
friendship. Virtuous and choice friendships, 
formed in early life, are often of far greater im- 
portance than the young are apt to suppose. 

Melancthon says, the " Latin schools of Saxony 
were then in good repute," and Mathesius says, 
"the school at Magdeburg was more celebrated 
than many others." Not far from the south gate 
of the city, was the school of the Brethren of the 
Life in Common. Near this was the celebrated 
cathedral school, and in the north-west part of the 
town, the school of the Franciscan monks. It was 
to the Franciscan school that Luther and his friend 
are said to have resorted. As this is the only mo- 
nastic school which he attended in his boyhood, 
we must suppose that he had this particularly in 
mind when he afterward wrote on the subject. 

In 1497, then, two boys, the one quite young 
and indigent, the other older and in better cir- 
cumstances, left their home in a romantic town 
on the border of the Hartz Mountains, and jour- 
neyed on foot, north, about fifty miles, through a 
rich and level country to the large and fortified 
city of Magdeburg, then under the civil rule of 
the archbishop and the place of his residence. 
The direct road would lead them to the west of 
Hettstedt, (the last considerable town in the 
county of Mansfeld.) to Aschersleben, at which 
point the mountains and forests begin to disap- 
pear, to Egeln, beyond the territory of> Halber- 



M. 13-21.] 



JOURNEY TO MAGDEBURG. 



49 



stadt, and within that of Magdeburg, and thence 
to the place of their destination. The mode of 
travel was probably not very different from that 
described by Platter above. 

What an impression must the scene now spread 
before our young traveller's eye have made upon 
him ! For the first time in his life, he finds him- 
self in a large and splendid capital, with a popu- 
lation of thirty or forty thousand. Eisleben was 
the largest town he had ever before seen. Mag- 
deburg was the seat of the archbishop, at that 
time the sovereign of a large territory on both 
sides of the Elbe. Ernest, then archbishop, 
brother of Frederic the Wise, Elector of Saxony, 
was an excellent man, celebrated for the sim- 
plicity of his character, and yet no less than 
twelve trumpeters must entertain him with their 
music when he dined.* And yet of all the splen- 
dour of this city Luther could enjoy little. He 
was to be shut up in the school-room of the 
gloomy Franciscan cloister. The spirit of the 
mendicant friars was to rule over him. In a city 
of great intelligence and high culture, he was to 
be under the guidance of ignorance and supersti- 



* The cathedral, the first finished specimen of Gothic architecture 
in the north of Germany, and the Closter Berg, had adorned the 
city for more than a century. When it was dedicated, there were 
present a papal legate, seven archbishops, six bishops, six abbots, 
three dukes of Saxony, two margraves of Misnia, three dukes of 
Brunswick, four princes of Anhalt, and many counts, lords, knights, 
nobles, deputies from the towns belonging to the see, ladies of rank, 
besides the people of the city and its suburbs. These and all the 
clergy were treated to a splendid repast, and then four days were 
spent in tournaments and other chivalrous entertainments ! 



50 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1497-1505. 



tion, procuring his bread by choral and other ser- 
vices in the church, and by singing with his com- 
panions, in their dark clerical robes, in the streets, 
from door to door. This is the way in which boys 
were then accustomed to maintain themselves in 
the schools. 

The Franciscans wore a gray robe with black 
scapularies, and were especially employed in attend- 
ing on the sick, and in the burial of the dead. The 
boy, in whose heart was a sealed fountain of fer- 
vent and joyous passion, found nothing under his 
new masters and in his new mode of life to satisfy 
his internal wants. The few incidents which he 
records, from his recollections of this period, are 
strikingly characteristic of the order, and indeed 
of the church at large. "I have seen," says he, 
"with these eyes, in my fourteenth year, when I 
was at school in Magdeburg, a Prince of Anhalt, 
brother of Adolphus, Bishop of Merseburg, going 
about the streets in a cowl, begging bread with a 
sack upon his shoulders, like a beast of burden, 

insomuch that he stooped to the ground He 

had fasted and watched and mortified his flesh till 
he appeared like to an image of death, with only 
skin and bones, and died soon after." 

He speaks of a painting, symbolical of the 
sentiments entertained by the church, seen by 
him about this time, and leaving a deep impres- 
sion upon his mind. "A great ship was painted, 
likening the church, wherein there was no layman, 
not even a king or prince. There were none but 
the pope with his cardinals and bishops in the 
prow, with the Holy Ghost hovering over them ; 



M. 13-21.] JOURNEY TO MAGDEBURG. 



51 



the priests and monks with their oars at the side ; 
and thus they were sailing on heavenward. The 
laymen were swimming along in the water aronnd 
the ship. Some of them were drowning; some 
were drawing themselves up to the ship by means 
of ropes, which the monks, moved by pity, and 
making over their own good works, did cast out 
to them, to keep them from drowning, and to 
enable them to cleave to the vessel and go with 
the others to heaven. There was no pope, nor 
cardinal, nor bishop, nor priest, nor monk in the 
water, but laymen only. This painting was an 
index and summary of their doctrine. ... I 
was once one of them, and helped teach such 
things, believing them and knowing no better." 

We know but little of this Franciscan school, 
and of Luther's residence there, except that in 
the mode of instruction there was no material 
improvement upon that which he had received at 
Mansfeld; and that his suffering from want be- 
came so extreme that it was no longer tolerable, 
and hence he left the school after one year's bitter 
trial, never to see the place again, till he should 
visit it in a very different capacity. 



52 LIFE OF LUTHER. [1497-1505. 



Section II. — Luther's Removal from Magdeburg to Eisenach. 

So great were the privations and sufferings of 
young Luther at Magdeburg, that it was decided 
by his father that he should remove to Eisenach, 
where his maternal grandparents and other rela- 
tives resided, and where also there was a good 
Latin school. It was hoped that he would here 
be so far provided for as to be relieved from press- 
ing want. But parents, who themselves were 
familiar with hardships, would expect that their 
son should be exposed to them also. 

We can easily imagine with what different feel- 
ings the boy performed the journey home, from 
those with which he passed over the same ground 
when he first went abroad into the wide world. 
After indulging in the exquisite pleasures of home, 
as they are felt by a boy on returning from his 
first absence — for Mansfeld was directly on the 
way to Eisenach — he must have gone forth with 
moderated and yet pleasing expectations ; — mode- 
rated, because he had taken one sad lesson in the 
knowledge of the world ; and pleasing, because 
he was about to go, not among utter strangers, 
but among the kindred of his mother. What 
strange emotions would have filled the breast of 
the boy, had he then had a prophetic vision of the 
tragic events that should take place a quarter of 
a century after, in the places through which he 
was now to pass ! About twenty miles on his 
way from Mansfeld, he might see Allstedt, where 
Muncer was to become the leader in the bloody 



M. 13-21.] 



REMOVAL TO EISENACH. 



53 



Peasants' War. To the west is seen the river 
Helnie, on whose beautiful banks is situated the 
Golden Meadow, (Golclene Aue,) extending more 
than thirty miles to the neighbourhood of Nord- 
hausen.* 

At a distance of about sixteen miles from 
Allstedt is Frankenhausen, where the decisive 
battle was fought, May 5, 1525, and Muncer and 
his party completely routed. Still farther on, 
toward Eisenach, lies Muhlhausen, which was 
the head-quarters of Muncer's army. Eisenach 



* This tract of enchanted land extends nearly the whole distance 
from Naumburg to Nordhausen. Memleben on the Fnstrut, about 
ten miles south of Alstedt, was the favourite residence of the German 
emperors of the Saxon line. Here Matilda, royal consort of Henry 
the First, founded a nunnery. Here, probably, Henry the Fowler 
was busying himself with his falcons when it was announced to him 
that he was chosen emperor ; and here, too, he breathed his last. 
Here his son, Otto the First, on his way to the diet of Merseburg, 
passed the season of Lent, and died immediately after the services. 
A little farther up the river, and on the opposite side, is Rossleben. 
Here was an ancient nunnery, afterward converted into an excellent 
cloister-school or gymnasium, in which Ernesti, Von Thiimmel and 
other eminent men received their elementary education. Passing 
another cloister-school, we come to the junction of the Helnie and 
Unstrut. South is to be seen the Palace of Heldrungen, and, on the 
summit, the ruins of Sachsenburg. Ascending the Helme, west of 
Allstedt, we come to Wallhausen, where Otto the Great built a palace 
and often resided, as did his son after him. In this vicinity the 
German emperors loved to pass their time. A little farther on, 
beyond Tilleda, another royal residence, to the left of the Golden 
Meadow, rises Kyffhausen with Frederic's tower. There are many 
legends respecting Frederic Barbarossa and this castle. It was 
here that Henry the Sixth and Henry the Lion became reconciled 
to each other, and checked for a time the feuds between Guelf and 
Ghibiline. West of this is the peak of Rothenberg, with another 
tower, whose history runs back to pagan times. 

5* 



54 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1 497-1505. 



lies about twenty miles south of Miihlhausen. 
Between these two places is one of the largest of 
the five ranges of hills, w T hich it is necessary to 
cross in taking this route. Just before reaching 
Eisenach we cross the most southerly range. As 
one enters the town from the north, he looks 
down upon it, and sees it lying before him in a 
valley, under the castle of Wartburg towering on 
the right. 

Next to Wittenberg and Erfurt, this is the 
place richest in historical recollections in respect 
to Luther. Here he found the end of his sorrows 
arising from poverty. Here he first found sympa- 
thizing and skilful teachers, under whose influence 
he acquired a love of learning. Here his musical 
talent, his taste and imagination were first de- 
veloped, throwing their cheerful serenity over his 
sorrowful and beclouded mind. Here, too, he 
subsequently lived in his Patmos, or desert, as he 
playfully termed the Castle of Wartburg, in the 
character of Squire George, and passed his time 
sometimes in the chase on the mountains, but 
mostly in translating the New T Testament. 

There were in Eisenach at this time three 
churches, to which were attached as many paro- 
chial schools. Only one of these, however, was 
a Latin school; and that was at the church of St. 
George, a little east of the centre of the town. 
The name of the head master was Trebonius, the 
first skilful teacher under whose care Luther 
came, and to whom he felt a personal attachment. 
Though he did not belong to the new school of 
classical scholars trained in Italy, his Latin was 



M. 13-21.] REMOVAL TO EISENACH. 55 

much purer than that of the monks and priests 
generally. His personal character, too, though 
perhaps a little eccentric, was such as to win the 
love of his pupils. In coming before them, he 
used to take off his hat and bow to them, and 
complained that his assistants were disinclined to 
do likewise. He said, with truth, and with a 
sense of responsibility which showed that he 
understood the true dignity of his office, "among 
these boys are burgomasters, chancellors, doctors 
and magistrates." Though he is called a poet, 
that is a writer of Latin verses, we must remem- 
ber that this was a trivial school, and that but 
little more than Latin hymns and prayers were 
read ; and that it excelled other schools only by 
having a better method, by employing in conver- 
sation a purer Latin, and by having exercises in 
Latin verse. It is a mistake to suppose that 
Luther studied Greek here, or even such Latin 
authors as Cicero, Virgil and Livy. He com- 
menced the study of the latter in Erfurt, and the 
former at a much later period in Wittenberg as 
professor. The following is Melancthon's account 
of Luther's studies at Eisenach: "After leaving 
Magdeburg, he attended in the school at Eisenach 
four years on the instructions of a teacher who 
taught him grammar (Latin) better than it was 
elsewhere taught. For I remember how Luther 
commended his talents. He was sent thither 
because his mother was descended from an hon- 
ourable and ancient family of that town. Here 
he became master of grammar; and$ because of 
his superior understanding and natural aptitude 



56 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1497-1505. 



for eloquence, he made more proficiency, and 
easily excelled his fellow-pupils, both in his 
powers of speech and in writing prose and verse." 
Here is the first intimation we have of the mani- 
festation of those remarkable powers which distin- 
guished him in after-life. His teacher undoubtedly 
knew how to draw out of him what had hitherto 
been suffered to lie dormant. Perhaps, too, this 
was the time in life when his mind came, by the 
course of nature, to develop itself. At such a 
crisis, the value of a wise and genial instructor is 
inestimable. It is precisely when the corn is 
shooting most rapidly from the earth that the 
weeds should be subdued, so that all the strength 
of the soil may be given to the growth of the 
future harvest. 

Luther, who had been driven from Magdeburg 
by poverty, removed to Eisenach in hopes of 
sympathy and support from his relatives in that 
place. In this his hopes were disappointed. He 
was still compelled to beg his bread, singing in a 
choir from door to door. His sufferings appear to 
have been even greater here than in Magdeburg. 
No doubt, the early indigence of Luther, and the 
fact of his feeling that he was thrown back upon 
his own resources, contributed to the strength of 
his character. He probably had his own case in 
view when he said, "The young should learn 
especially to endure suffering and want ; for such 
suffering doth them no harm. It doth more harm 
for one to prosper without toil than it doth to 
endure suffering." "It is God's way, of beggars 
to make men of power, just as he made the world 



JE. 13-21.] 



REMOVAL TO EISENACH. 



57 



out of nothing. Look upon the courts of kings 
and princes, upon cities and parishes. You will 
there find jurists, doctors, counsellors, secretaries 
and preachers, who were commonly poor, and 
alway such as have been students, and have 
risen and flown so high through the quill, that 
they are become lords." "I have been a beggar 
of crumbs, and have taken my bread at the door, 
especially in Eisenach, my favourite town, although 
afterward my clear father with all love and fidelity 
sustained me at school in Erfurt, and by his sweat 
and hard labour helped me to that whereunto I 
have attained. Nevertheless I have been a beg- 
gar of bread, and have prospered so far forth with 
the pen, that I would not exchange my art for all 
the wealth of the Turkish empire. Nay, I would 
not exchange it for all the wealth of the world 
many times over. And yet I should not have 
attained thereunto, had I not. gone to school, and 
given myself to the business of writing. There- 
fore doubt not to put your boy to study; and 
if he must needs beg his bread, you neverthe- 
less give unto God a noble piece of timber 
whereof he will carve a great man. So it must 
always be; your son and mine, that is, the 
children of the common people, must govern the 
world both in the church and in the common- 
wealth." 

The pressure of poverty, on the other hand, 
may be too great, so as to depress the spirit 
instead of invigorating it. Luther is represented 
as having verged, while at Eisenach, to the very 
brink of despondency, and to have contemplated 



58 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1497-1505. 



relinquishing study altogether, and returning to 
the occupation of his father. 

It is difficult for us to suppress speculation as 
to what would have been the probable results of 
such a determination, — what his influence upon 
the destinies of mankind, and his place in the 
records of history. But Providence had other 
counsels than those the disheartened youth was 
almost ready to adopt; and an event, in itself 
trifling, decided a point on which were suspended 
interests of inconceivable magnitude. 

One day, as he and his companions were pass- 
ing through St. George street, not far from the 
school, their carols were unheeded, and, at three 
successive houses, the customary charity was 
withheld. With heavy hearts they passed on to 
Conrad Cotta's house, where they often received 
tokens of friendly regard. Madam Cotta had 
conceived an affection for young Luther, from the 
musical talents which he had displayed, and from 
the earnestness of his devotions at church. She 
invited him in, gave to him liberally, and after- 
ward received him into her house. Though 
probably not a relative of his, as some writers 
would have us believe, — he constantly called her 
his hostess, — she treated him as a son, and gave 
him support till he went to the university. It is 
pleasant to know that, though Madam Ursula 
Cotta herself died in 1511, Luther, after arriving 
at an eminence hardly second to that of any man 
of the age, remembered the debt of gratitude ; 
and in the years 1541 and 1542, only a few years 
before his death, received Henry Cotta, Ursula's 



m. i3-2i.] 



REMOVAL TO EISENACH. 



59 



son, into his house in turn, and this act of kind- 
ness toward him as a student at Wittenberg is 
mentioned in Cotta's epitaph at Eisenach, where 
he died as burgomaster. 

The influence of this connection upon Luther's 
mind could hardly be otherwise than favourable. 
Both his heart and his intellect were rendered 
dark and gloomy by the exclusively monastic 
character of his training. The path of his life 
thus far had been cheerless. Even the music 
which he loved, and in which he indulged, was 
mostly pensive. Domestic life he had been 
taught to regard as impure and sinful; and to 
the pleasures of a cheerful home of his own he 
was forbidden, by his monastic superstition, to 
look. "When I was a boy," he afterward said, 
"I imagined I could not think of the married 
state without sin." In the family of Cotta, he 
acquired other and more correct views of life. 
Here he became sensible to the charms of refined 
society. Not only were the generous affections 
strengthened by exercise, but the taste was culti- 
vated in that family circle. The perversions of 
the monastic morality were somewhat checked, 
though not fully exposed and corrected. Madam 
Cotta vindicated the dignity and sanctity of mar- 
ried life, and taught Luther that his preconceived 
notions on this subject were false. "My hostess 
at Eisenach," he remarked, "said truly, when I 
was there at school, 4 There is not on earth any 
thing more lovely than an affection for females 
(conjugal affection) when it is in the fear of 
God.'" 



60 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1497-1505. 



It was here that Luther learned to play on the 
flute. Some affirm that he at this time also 
learned to compose music and to touch the lute. 
Though he speaks of his voice as u slender and 
indistinct," he had in reality a fine alto voice, and 
Melancthon says "it could be heard at a great 
distance." 

Beneficial as were these gentle and bland in- 
fluences, and winning and inspiring as were the 
instructions of the head-master of the school, 
Eisenach itself was a priestly town, or, as the 
writers of that age call it, " a nest of priests," 
and all the religious associations of the place were 
adapted to nourish and strengthen the convictions 
with which Luther had grown up. There were 
nine monasteries and nunneries in and about the 
town, and an abundance of churches, priests and 
chaplains. There, too, lay the remains of the 
landgrave, Henry Raspe, at whose tomb the visit- 
ers on St. Julian's day could obtain two years' 
indulgence. Here St. Elizabeth, that most bene- 
volent and religious of the Thuringian landgra- 
vines, had lived and laboured for the good of the 
poor, and monuments of her zealous but supersti- 
tious piety were everywhere to be seen. 



JE. 13-21.] 



IN THE UNIVERSITY. 



61 



Section III. — Luther in the University of Erfurt. 

ARLY on the 17th 
of July, in 1501, at 
the opening of a new 
and great century, 
our student left the 
place " where," in 
his own language, 
" he had learned and 
enjoyed so much," 
and directed his 
steps toward the 
celebrated city and 
university which towered high above all the rest in 
influence in that part of Germany. Fifteen miles 
distant was Gotha, then, as it is now, the beau- 
tiful capital of the duchy of the same name. Here 
lived Mutianus, the centre of the poetical club to 
which many of Luther's subsequent Erfurt friends 
(as Lange, Spalatin, and Crotus and others) be- 
longed. Here Luther preached in 1521, on his 
way to the diet of Worms. Proceeding as much 
farther, through a country appearing, as one ad- 
vances, more and more like the Saxon plains, he 
came to Erfurt, formerly the great mart of interior 
Germany. This city, though in the very heart of 
Thuringia, was never subject to the landgrave. 
It was once the place of an episcopal see, and when 
this was transferred to Mainz, the archbishop of 

6 

/ 




62 



LIFE OF LUTHER, 



[1497-1505. 



which was made primate of Germany, Erfurt was 
retained under his jurisdiction, and regarded as the 
second capital of his electoral territory. Mean- 
while the citizens of Erfurt were aiming to make 
it a free imperial city, and the emperor favoured 
the project. The result was, that in the disorders 
of that feudal age, when rights were settled less 
by law than by physical power, the three con- 
tending parties, the Archbishop of Mainz, the 
citizens of Erfurt and the emperor, each had a 
share in the government of the city. In general, 
however, in the course of the struggle, the citi- 
zens acquired more and more power, and the city 
became more and more free. It was the citizens, 
and not the archbishop nor emperor, who founded 
the university, and consequently it had a practi- 
cal and liberal character which distinguished it 
very widely from that of Cologne. The Univer- 
sity of Erfurt had more than a thousand students, 
and Luther said that "it was so celebrated a 
seat of learning that others were but as grammar- 
schools compared with it." At the time Luther 
entered there, it had thirteen regular professors, 
besides the younger licentiates, or tutors, and 
there were several richly endowed colleges^ or re- 
ligious foundations, where the professors and 
students lived together as distinct corporations. 
Theology and the canonical or ecclesiastical law 
took the highest rank among the studies pursued 
there. In the two other learned professions, law 
and medicine, the old Roman civilians and the 
Greek medical writers were chiefly studied. In 
the wide department of philosophy, a sort of en- 



M. 13-21.] 



IN THE UNIVERSITY. 



G3 



cyclopaedia of the sciences, as contained in the 
writings of Aristotle, constituted the course of in- 
struction. The Bible was not studied, and none 
of the Greek authors above named were read in 
the original. Neither languages, except the Latin, 
nor history were taught after the manner which 
afterward prevailed in the universities. Every 
thing still wore the garb of the Middle Ages. 
There were no experiments or observations in 
natural philosophy, no accurate criticism in lan- 
guage or history. Learning was either a matter 
of memory, or it was a sort of gladiatorial exer- 
cise in the art of disputation. In one of the foun- 
dations at Erfurt, the beneficiaries were required 
to observe daily the seven canonical hours, as they 
are termed, or appointed seasons of saying prayers, 
to read the miserere, or supplication for the dead, 
and to hear a eulogy on the character of the Virgin 
Mary. The laws were very oppressive, from the 
minuteness of their details and the solemn oaths 
by which men bound themselves to obey them. 
This is what Luther called "an accursed method." 
"Everything," said he, "is secured by oaths and 
vows, and the wretched youth are cruelly and 
without necessity entangled as in a net." 

The university life of Luther, at Erfurt, forms a 
striking contrast with his abject and suffering con- 
dition while begging his bread at the doors of the 
charitable, and also with his monastic life imme- 
diately after leaving the university. He now che- 
rished, though with great moderation, that more 
cheering view of human life with which he had 
been made familiar in the house of Madam Cotta. 



64 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1497-1505. 



He was furthermore stimulated by a natural love 
of acquisition in useful knowledge, now for the 
first time awakened into full activity. The study 
of classical literature, which had been revived in 
Italy and France, was beginning to be cultivated 
with enthusiasm in Germany. Of the young men 
who prosecuted these studies with zeal, there was 
a brilliant circle then at Erfurt. Without formal- 
ly uniting himself with this classical and poetical 
club, he took up the study of the best Latin wri- 
ters in prose and verse, with an earnestness that 
fully equalled theirs, and imprinted indelibly upon 
his memory those passages which were most strik- 
ing whether for the sentiment or the expression. 
Thus he was the friend, and in many respects the 
rival, of the poetical geniuses who sparkled at 
Erfurt, though the more earnest and practical 
character of his mind gave him a decided prefer- 
ence for solid and practical learning. Besides the 
Roman classics, the scholastic philosophy engaged 
much of his attention. This must not, as has 
often been the case with the biographers of Lu- 
ther, be confounded with the scholastic theology. 
It embraced logic, intellectual philosophy, and 
such a course of physical science as is found in 
the writings of Aristotle. Indeed, compends from 
Aristotle and comments upon his writings consti- 
tuted the sum and substance of the philosophy 
taught in the universities at this time. 

Luther was now in comparatively independent 
circumstances. His father had been so far pros- 
perous in his business as to be able to support him 
at Erfurt, Could we have seen Luther at this 



v£. 13-21.] 



IN THE UNIVERSITY. 



65 



time, from the age of eighteen to that of twenty- 
two, full of vigour and activity, exulting in the 
consciousness of superior intellectual power, win- 
ning golden opinions by the rapid progress made 
in his studies, appearing, according to the usages 
of the age, with a sword at his side, now eagerly 
devouring the contents of Virgil and Cicero, now 
poring over the subtleties of the Aristotelian logic, 
— at one time overcoming his opponents with sur- 
passing power in debate ; at another, teaching the 
Aristotelian philosophy, while preparing for the 
legal profession, — we can easily imagine the sen- 
sation it created in Erfurt, and the chagrin it gave 
his father, when it was announced that Luther 
had entered the Augustinian convent! 

During the first two years which he spent at 
Erfurt, (from 1501 to 1503,) he was chiefly en- 
gaged in the study of Roman literature and of 
philosophy, at the end of which period he took 
his first degree. The year in which he received 
this honour is supposed also to be the one in which 
the following occurrence took place. Early in 
the spring, he set out in company with a friend, 
equipped as usual with a sword, to visit his pa- 
rents. Within an hour after leaving Erfurt, he, 
by some accident, ran his sword into his foot and 
opened a main artery. A physician was called 
from the city, who succeeded, not without diffi- 
culty, in closing up the wound. An unusual 
swelling arising from the forced stoppage of the 
blood, and a rupture taking place during the fol- 
lowing night, Luther feared the accident would 
prove fatal, and, in immediate prospect of death, 

6* 



66 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1497-1505. 



commended himself to the Virgin Mary. "Had 
I then died," he afterward said, " I should have 
died in the faith of the Virgin." 

It was during the same year that Luther had 
his second severe illness. His first was while he 
was at Magdeburg. In his extremity, and while 
despairing of life, he was visited by an aged priest, 
who spoke those memorable words which were 
afterward regarded by some as prophetic : " Be 
of good comfort, my brother ; you will not die at 
this time. God will yet make a great man of you, 
who shall comfort many others. Whom God lov- 
eth and purposeth to make a blessing, upon him 
he early layeth the cross, and in that school those 
who patiently endure learn much." 

Of two of Luther's principal teachers, Usingen 
and Jodocus of Eisenach, and of the subject-matter 
and manner of their teaching, we have the means 
of knowing more than is common in such cases. 
The works which they published between 1501 
and 1514, containing undoubtedly the substance 
of the very lectures which Luther heard, suggest 
to the curious reader interesting trains of thought. 
A comparison of their teachings in the physical 
sciences with what Luther, long after, interwove 
in his commentary on the beginning of Genesis, 
proves not only that these books are but little 
more than the printed lectures of their author, 
but also tha,t Luther faithfully stored those in- 
structions away in his capacious and retentive 
memory for future use. Here we cannot sup- 
press the general remark, that the mass of the 
opinions which Luther afterward expresses, on 



M. 13-21.] 



IN THE UNIVERSITY. 



67 



these and other kindred subjects, are to be re- 
garded, not as originating with himself, but as 
coming to him through the lectures which he 
heard and the books which he read. Though the 
two teachers just named were more simple in 
their method and more just in their thoughts than 
most of their contemporaries, they are sufficiently 
prolix and dry to satisfy even a scholastic taste. 
Usingen belonged to the Augustinian monastery 
in Erfurt, and was, no doubt, Luther's teacher 
there in the scholastic theology, as he had been 
before in philosophy or dialectics. Jodocus of 
Eisenach, often called Trutvetter, was more eminent 
than Usingen. He was afterward associated with 
Luther at Wittenberg as professor of theology, 
and was one of those early friends of Luther who 
were grieved at his bold and decided measures as 
a reformer. Siisse, a very pious young man, who, 
later in life, openly espoused the evangelical cause, 
is by some represented as Luther's room-mate at 
the university. Others suppose he only occupied 
the same cell with him in the convent. The inti- 
mate friendship, which subsisted through life be- 
tween Luther and Spalatin and Lange, was com- 
menced when they were all students in Erfurt. 

It Avas in 1505, two years after taking his first 
degree, that he was made master of arts, which 
entitled him to teach in the university. He ac- 
tually entered upon the duties of this office, and 
taught the physics and logic of Aristotle. It was 
the wish of his father that he should qualify 
himself for some civil office by studying law ; 
and, at the same time that he was teacher, he 



GS 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1497-1505. 



commenced the study, which, though soon broken 
off by the events which led him to the cloister, 
was important to him, as enabling him to discuss 
those points in the canon law which were urged 
against the Reformation by his opponents. 

*Section IV. — The Bible first seen by Luther in the Library 
of the University. 

We learn from Mathesius, what we might, in- 
deed, infer from Luther's subsequent character, 
that he was a young man of buoyant and cheer- 
ful feelings ; and, at the same time, that he began 
every day with prayer, and went daily to church 
service. Furthermore, " he neglected no univer- 
sity exercise, was wont to propound questions to 
his teachers, did often review his studies with his 
fellow-students, and whenever there were no ap- 
pointed exercises, he was in the library." 

" Upon a time," continues the same writer, 
" when he was carefully viewing the books one 
after another, to the end that he might know them 
that were good, he fell upon a Latin Bible, which 
he had never before seen in all his life. He mar- 
velled greatly as he noted that more text, or more 
epistles and gospels, were therein contained than 
were set forth and explained in the common pos- 
tils* and sermons preached in the churches. In 
turning over the leaves of the Old Testament, he 
fell upon the history of Samuel and of his mother 
Hannah. This did he quickly read through with 
hearty delight and joy; and because this was all 



* Collections of Homilies. 



JE. 13-21.] 



DISCOVERS THE BIBLE. 



69 



new to him, he began to wish from the bottom of 
his heart that our faithful God would one day be- 
stow upon him such a book for his own." 

Luther, who often alludes to this incident, once 
says that it occurred "when he was a young man 
and a bachelor of arts." At another time he says, 
"when I was twenty years old, I had never seen 
a Bible." In another place, he intimates that he 
saw the Bible only once while he was in the uni- 
versity, and that an interval of about two years 
intervened before he saw another copy in the 
cloister. "I was reading," he says, "a place in 
Samuel; but it was time to go to lecture. I would 
fain have read the whole book through, but there 
was not opportunity then. I asked for a Bible 
as soon as I had entered the cloister." 

He became owner of a postil, which pleased him 
much, because it contained more of the Gospels 
than were commonly read during the year. The 
study of the Scriptures, therefore, seems, in the 
case of Luther, to have commenced rather in the 
cloister than in the university. It is natural, 
however, and almost necessary to suppose that the 
histor}^ of Samuel, who led a consecrated life in 
the temple, and in whom Luther became provi- 
dentially so deeply interested, was not without its 
influence in leading the mind of the latter to con- 
template a monastic life. 



70 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



CHAPTER III. 

LUTHER IN THE CLOISTER AT ERFURT, FROM 1505 TO 1508 

The origin of the Reformation, as a religious 
movement and as connected with the efforts of 
Luther, is to be traced chiefly to what he himself 
experienced in the convent at Erfurt. There he 
first made thorough trial of that outward and legal 
system of religion which had nearly banished the 
gospel of Christ from the church. There he 
groped his way through the mazes of papal error, 
and found the path that led to Christ as the sim- 
ple object of his faith and love. He went through 
all the process of overcoming the elements of a 
ceremonial, and of appropriating those of an evan- 
gelical religion, by the force of his individual cha- 
racter, and by the power of the word and the Spirit 
of God. He found himself standing almost soli- 
tary on the ground of justification by faith alone, 
and private judgment in interpreting the Scrip- 
tures. From the time of his going to Wittenberg 
to the year 1517, he was chiefly employed in work- 
ing out these two ideas, reconciling his experience 
with well-established truths, and trying upon the 
minds of others, namely, of his pupils and some of 
the younger professors, the same experiment which 
he had unconsciously made upon himself. When 
he came to feel the full strength of his founda- 
tion, and, with the Bible and the sober use of rea- 



JE. 21-25.] 



IN THE CLOISTER. 



71 



son as his weapons, prostrated the scholastic the- 
ology, and professor and student confessed their 
power, his conscience impelled him to seize upon 
the first and upon every public opportunity to pro- 
pagate these principles, that others might share 
with him so unspeakable a blessing. 

The study of Luther's religious experience has 
a two-fold interest, first, in itself as one of the 
most striking on record, and then as a key to the 
religious character of the Reformation. Until 
recently, the subject has been wrapt in such ob- 
scurity and confusion that it has appeared more as 
a romance than as a reality. To Jiirgens belongs 
the honour of having first collected and arranged 
all the known facts of the case, in such a way as 
to furnish a pretty clear history of what was be- 
fore both imperfect and chaotic. 

Section I. — Luther becomes a Monk. 

The whole course of Luther's training tended 
to impress upon his mind the sanctity of the mo- 
nastic life. This, in his view, was the surest way 
of pleasing God, and of escaping the terrors of the 
world to come. Educated as he was to a legal 
view of religion, and conscious, at the same time, 
that he had not fulfilled the law, nothing remained 
to him but to continue as he was, at the risk of 
his salvation, or to seek for a higher kind of piety 
by which the law of God might be satisfied. His 
prevailing feeling was to continue in his former 
course of life, but any sudden terror would re- 
vive the alarms of his conscience, and suggest the 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



thought of putting his anxious mind for ever at 
rest by fleeing to a cloister as a refuge v for his 
soul. In this way was his niind finally deter- 
mined. In 1505, Alexius, a friend of Luther in 
the university, was assassinated. Soon after, 
about the first of July, as Luther was walking in 
a retired road between Erfurt and Stotterheim, 
probably on his way home to escape the epidemic 
then prevailing at Erfurt, he was overtaken by a 
violent thunder storm, and the lightning struck 
with terrific force near his feet. He was stunned, 
and exclaimed in his terror, "Help, beloved St. 
Anne, and I will straightway become a monk."* 

Besides the above-mentioned occurrences, there 
was an epidemic raging in the university; many 
of the teachers and pupils had fled, and it was 
very natural that Luther's mind should be in a 
very gloomy state. St. Anne was the reigning 
saint in Saxony at this time, having recently 
become an object of religious regard, to whose 
honour the Saxon town Annaberg was built, and 
who, for a time, was the successful rival even of 
the Virgin Mary. Hence, the invocation of this 
saint by Luther. 

Referring to this event, in a dedication of a 
work on Monastic Vows to his father, Luther 
says : " I did not become a monk joyfully and 
willingly, much less for the sake of obtaining a 
livelihood, but being miserable and encompassed 



* Such is the view in which the testimony of Luther, Melancthon, 
Mathesius and other early witnesses is best united. The representa- 
tion of later writers that Alexius was killed by lightning is now 
abandoned by most historians. 



M. 21-25.] 



BECOMES A MONK. 



73 



with the terrors and anguish of death, I made a 
constrained and forced vow." He again says, 
" It was not done from the heart, nor willingly." 
These statements, taken in connection with seve- 
ral others where it is said that certain views of 
religion drove him to the monastery, make it 
plain that it required the force of excited fears 
to induce him to enter upon a life which he had 
always regarded as the most sacred, and as most 
surely leading to heaven. How much he then 
needed the instruction which Staupitz at a later 
period gave him ! 

Before executing his purpose, he took two 
weeks for reflection. It has been said, that dur- 
ing this interval, he regretted his rash vow. No 
doubt he had to pass through severe mental strug- 
gles ; that in his calmer moments opposite con- 
siderations would present themselves to his mind, 
and none with more power than that of having 
gone counter to the known wishes of his father, 
by whose toils he had been sustained at the uni- 
versity. In his Commentary on Genesis xlix. 13, 
he says, "When I had made a beginning in the 
study of the liberal arts and in philosophy, and 
comprehended and learned so much therein that 
I was made master, I might, after the example 
of others, have become teacher and instructor in 
turn, or have prosecuted my studies and made 
greater advancement therein. But I forsook my 
parents and kindred, and betook myself, contrary 
to their will, to the cloister, and put on the cowl. 
For I had suffered myself to be persuaded that 
by entering into a religious order, and taking 

7 



74 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508 



upon me such hard and rigorous labour, I should 
do God great service." 

Here may properly be introduced a few other 
sayings of Luther in respect to the motives which 
led him to take this step. In a manuscript pre- 
served at Gotha, he is represented as saying, "I 
went into the cloister and forsook the world be- 
cause I despaired of myself." " I made a vow 
for the salvation of my soul. For no other cause 
did I betake myself to a life in the cloister than 
that I might serve God and please him forever- 
more." " I thought God did not concern himself 
about me," he says in one of his sermons ; "if I 
get to heaven and be happy, it will depend mostly 
on myself. I knew no better than to think that 
by my own works I must rid myself of sin and 
death. For this cause I became a monk, and had 
a most bitter experience withal. Oh ! thought I, 
if I only go into a cloister and serve God in a 
cowl and with a shorn crown, he will reward me 
and bid me welcome." 

During the interval of two weeks, while he 
kept his design from his parents and from his 
fellow-students, the Gotha manuscript says that 
he communicated it to Andrew Staffelstein, as the 
head of the university, and to a few pious females. 
Staffelstein advised him to join the Franciscan 
order, whose monastery had just been rebuilt in 
Erfurt, and went immediately with him to the 
cloister, lest a change should take place in Lu- 
ther's mind. The teacher resorted also to flat- 
tery, no doubt with a good conscience, saying 
that of none of his pupils did he entertain higher 



M. 21-25.] 



BECOMES A MONK. 



75 



hopes in respect to piety and goodness. When 
they arrived at the cloister, the monks urged his 
connecting himself immediately with the order. 
Luther replied that he must first make known 
his intention to his parents. But Staff els tein 
and the friars rejoined that he must forsake father 
and mother, and steal away to the cross of Christ. 
Whosoever putteth his hand to the plough and 
looketh back is not worthy of the kingdom of 
God. In this "monstrous inhumanity," as Lu- 
ther calls it, "savouring more of the wolf and 
the tyrant than of the Christian and the man," 
the monks were only carrying out the principle 
which Jerome had taught them, and which was 
the more weighty, being sanctioned by his great 
name. As quoted by Luther, in his Commentary 
on Gen. xliii. 30, the words of that ancient Fa- 
ther run thus : " Though thy father should lie 
before thy door weeping and lamenting, and thy 
mother should show the body that bore thee 
and the breasts that nursed thee, see that thou 
trample them under foot, and go onward straight- 
way to Christ." By such perversion of Scrip- 
ture and reason did the monks deprive many a 
parent of the society of his children. "That," 
says Luther again, " is the teaching of antichrist, 
and you may boldly tell him, he lieth. Next to 
obedience to himself, before all things and above 
all things, God requireth obedience to parents. . . . 
A son or a daughter runneth away from his father, 
and goeth into a cloister against his will. The 
pope with his party of Herodians approveth the 
act, and thus compelleth the people to tear in 



76 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



pieces a command of God in order to worship 
God." "Hadst thou known," it is said in the 
above-mentioned dedicatory epistle of Luther to 
his father, "that I was then in thy power, 
wouldst thou not, from thine authority as a fa- 
ther, have plucked me out of my cowl ? Had I 
known it, I would not have essayed such a thing 
against thy will and knowledge, though I must 
suffer a thousand deaths." It seems, therefore, 
that Luther's mind was in a conflict between a 
sense of duty to his parents and a false persua- 
sion of duty to his own soul and to God. Even 
the father was someAvhat puzzled by the spe- 
ciousness of the monastic logic. But the son 
made the former consideration yield to the lat- 
ter, which the father always maintained was an 
error. We must not be surprised that such 
scruples were entertained in respect to the filial 
obligation of one who was about twenty-two 
years of age; for, not to mention that by law a 
son did not reach the age of majority till he was 
twenty-five years of age, filial obedience was, as 
in the patriarchal age, considered as due to an 
indefinite period of life. 

Luther, however, did not enter into the cloister 
of the Franciscans, but preferred that of the Au- 
gustinian eremites. Undoubtedly a regard for 
the literary and more elevated character of that 
order decided his choice. This took place, as 
Luther himself once said, on the 17th of July, 
1505. On the evening preceding, he' invited his 
university friends to a social party. The hours 
passed away in lively conversation and song. 



JE. 21-25.] 



BECOMES A MONK. 



77 



Until near the close of that evening, according 
to Melancthon, the guests had no intimation of 
what was to follow. When Luther announced 
his purpose to them, they endeavoured to dis- 
suade him from it. But it was all in vain. " To 
day," said he, " you see me ; after this, you will 
see me no more." 

The very same night, or early the following 
morning, he presented himself at the door of the 
convent, according to previous arrangement, and 
was admitted. His scholastic, classical and law 
books he gave to the booksellers ; his masters 
ring, given when he took that degree, and his 
secular attire, he sent to his parents. The only 
books which he retained were the two Roman 
poets, Virgil and Plautus, a circumstance that 
throws light upon the peculiarly susceptible and 
almost romantic character of his mind, no less 
than does the festive hour with which he had 
the resolution to close his secular career. He 
informed his other friends and his parents, by 
letter, of the important step he had taken. The 
former, lamenting that such a man should be 
buried alive, as it were, almost besieged the 
cloister, seeking for two successive days an inter- 
view with their friend. But the cloister door was 
bolted against them, and he was not to be seen 
by them for a month. Luther's father probably 
did not come immediately to the cloister, (as 
some writers have asserted, confounding this oc- 
casion with that of his ordination as priest,) but 
replied to his son's letter in a manner which 
showed the highest displeasure, and withheld 

■ 7* 



78 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



the respectful form of address (Jkr) which, from 
the time the degree of master of arts was con- 
ferred, he had ever given him, and employed one 
(du) which was ordinarily given to children and 
servants. 

To human view, the course of Luther, in leav- 
ing the university and the study of the law, and 
in entering a cloister, seems a most unfortunate 
one. The best years of his life, one would think, 
were thrown away upon solemn trifles. But, if 
we consider that, after a public education, a se- 
cluded life often contributes most to true great- 
ness, by holding a man long at the very fountain- 
head of thought and reflection, (as was the case 
with Chrysostom, Augustine and many others,) 
and if, moreover, we consider that the false foun- 
dations of a system of error are often best under- 
stood by him who has made the most perfect trial 
of them, we shall conclude with Luther, " God 
ordered that I should become monk not without 
good reason, that, being taught by experience, I 
might take up my pen against the pope." 



Section II. — The Novitiate. 1505. 

The - first act was that of assuming the vest- 
ments of the novitiate. The solemn ceremonies 
of that occasion were settled by the rules of the 
order. The transaction was to take place in the 
presence of the whole assembly. The prior pro- 
posed to the candidate the question, whether he 
thought his strength was sufficient to bear the 
burdens about to be imposed upon him ; at the 



JE. 21-25.] 



THE NOVITIATE. 



79 



same time reminding him of the strictness of 
their discipline, and the renunciation which one 
must make of his own will, subjecting it to that 
of the order. He referred to the plain living and 
clothing, the nightly vigils and daily toils, the 
mortifications of the flesh, the reproach attached 
to a state of poverty and mendicancy, the languor 
produced by fasting, and the tedium of solitude, 
and other similar things which awaited him. 
The candidate replied, that with the help of 
God he would make trial thereof. The prior 
said, "We receive you then on probation for 
one year; and may God, who hath begun a 
good work in you, carry it on unto perfection." 
The whole assembly then cried "Amen," and 
struck up the Magne pater Augustine, (Great 
Father Augustine.) Meanwhile the head was 
shorn, the secular robes laid aside, and the 
spiritual robes put on. The prior intimated to 
the individual that with these last he was also 
to put on the new man. He now kneeled clown 
before the prior, antiphonies were sung, and the 
divine blessing invoked, thus : " May God, who 
hath converted this young man from the world 
and prepared for him a mansion in heaven, grant 
that his daily walk may be as becometh his call- 
ing, and that he may have cause to be thankful 
for this clay's doings," &c. Then the procession 
moved on, singing responses again, till they 
reached the choir, where they all prostrated 
themselves in prayer. The candidate was next 
conducted to the common hall of the cloister, 
where he received from the prior and all the 



80 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



brethren the fraternal kiss. He then bowed the 
knee again before the prior, who, after reminding 
him that he who persevereth to the end shall be 
saved, gave him over to the preceptor, whose 
duty it was to instruct him during his novitiate. 

The order of Augustinian eremites, which ori- 
ginated about the middle of the thirteenth cen- 
tury, was said to have nearly two thousand clois- 
ters, besides three hundred nunneries and more 
than thirty thousand monks. It was reformed 
and organized anew at the Council of Basle, in 
the fifteenth century. The celebrated Proles, 
who was at Magdeburg when Luther was there 
at school, was the second vicar after the re-organi- 
zation, and in 1503 Staupitz was the fourth, who, 
in the following year, that is, the year before Lu- 
ther entered the cloister at Erfurt, gave to the 
order a new constitution. The abler and better 
men of this order, such as Proles and Staupitz, 
were led, by the study of the writings of Augus- 
tine, to entertain his views of the doctrine of 
divine grace and of justification by faith. The 
Augustinian friars were generally more retiring, 
studious and contemplative than the ambitious, 
gross and bigoted Dominicans and Franciscans. 
Hence Luther's preference of the order. 

According to the new rules laid down by Stau- 
pitz, the prior was to give to each novice a pre- 
ceptor and guide, who should be learned, experi- 
enced and zealous for the interests of the order. 
It was the duty of this preceptor to initiate the 
novice into a knowledge of all the rules and regu- 
lations that had been established ; to explain to 



M. 21-25.] 



THE NOVITIATE. 



81 



him the system of worship to be observed, and 
the signs by which directions were silently given; 
to see that he was awakened by night to attend 
to all the vigils ; that he observed, at their proper 
times and places, the prescribed inclinations, genu- 
flections and prostrations ; that he did not neglect 
the silent prayers and private confessions ; and 
that he made a proper use of the books, sacred 
utensils and garments. The novice was to con- 
verse with no one except in the presence of the 
preceptor or prior ; never to dispute respecting 
the regulations ; to take no notice of visiters ; to 
drink only in a sitting posture, and holding the 
cup with both hands; to walk with downcast 
eye ; to bow low in receiving every gift, and to 
say, " The Lord be praised in his gifts ;" to love 
poverty, avoid pleasure, and subdue his own will ; 
to read the Scriptures diligently, and to listen to 
others eagerly and learn with avidity. Luther 
was so thoroughly drilled in all these practices 
that he retained some of them, as a matter of 
habit, through life. " The young monks," says 
he, in referring to one of these practices, " were 
taught, when they received any gift, if it were but 
a feather, to bow low and say, 6 God be praised 
for every gift he bestoweth.' " 

Trespasses were classified under the heads of 
small, great, greater, greatest. To the small belong 
the failing to go to church as soon as the sign 
is given, or forgetting to touch the ground instant- 
ly with the hand and to smite the breast, if in 
reading in the choir or in singing the least error 
is committed; looking about the house in time of 



82 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



service ; making any disturbance in the dormitory 
or in the cell; desiring to sing or read otherwise 
than in the prescribed order; omitting prostration 
when giving thanks at the Annunciation or Christ- 
mas ; forgetting the benediction in going out or 
coming in ; neglecting to return books or garments 
to their proper places; dropping one's food, or 
spilling one's drink, or eating without saying 
grace, &c. &c. To great trespasses were reckoned 
contending with any one, reminding one of a for- 
mer fault, breaking the prescribed silence or fasts, 
looking at women, or talking with them, except 
at the confessional or in brief replies, &c. 

Luther was at once put into subjection to all 
these trivial and often senseless laws. The good 
monks seemed to delight in teaching lessons of 
humility. With his studies, in which he was al- 
ready too much distinguished for them, they were 
not at all pleased. He himself says, " As I came 
into the cloister, they said to me, 6 It shall be with 
you as it was with us — sack on the neck.' " Again 
he says, " In Italy there is an order of Ignorants, 
who vow sacred ignorance. All orders might lay 
claim to that title, for that they give heed only to 
the words, but not to the sense, of what they read 
or repeat. They say, if thou understandest not 
the meaning of the Scriptures and the prayers, 
Satan doth and fleeth. The alpha and omega of 
the monks is to hate knowledge and study. If a 
brother is given to study, they straightway sur- 
mise that he wishes to bear rule over them." 

The Erfurt monks were not all of the most 
spiritual character. Luther says of the monks in 



JE. 21-25.] 



THE NOVITIATE. 



83 



general, that " For one fast they had three feasts. 
At the evening collation two cans of good beer and 
a little can of wine were given to each monk, be- 
sides spiced cakes and salted bread to quicken 
their thirst. The poor brethren appeared like 
fiery angels." That Luther had in mind the 
monks at Erfurt is pretty evident, from his saying 
that he had, in the papacy, never seen a proper 
fast ; that " abstinence from meat," signified only to 
have the best of fish, with the nicest seasoning 
and good wine; besides, "They taught," says he, 
"that we should despise riches, vineyards and 
fields ; and yet they seek after them, most of all, 
and eat and drink the very best. One brother in 
the cloister could consume five biscuits, when one 
was enough for me." One doctor, in the cloister, 
had omitted the canonical hours for three months, 
so that he could not now make them all up. He 
therefore gave a few guldens to two brethren to 
help him to pray, that he might get through the 
sooner. 

Of the treatment which Luther received after 
entering upon his novitiate, it is not easy to judge. 
Was it according to the spirit of the order, and 
consequently a mode of treatment to which all 
without distinction were at first subject? or was 
the deportment of the monks toward Luther par- 
ticularly harsh and severe? Some considerations 
may be urged in favour of the former view. Lu- 
ther himself represents it as the vice of the sys- 
tem. " True obedience, that alone of which they 
boast, the monks seek to prove by requiring un- 
reasonable, childish and foolish things, all which 



84 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



were to be cheerfully submitted to." He never 
complains of faring worse than others: but he 
does complain that no distinctions were made ac- 
cording to the physical constitution and mental 
state of individuals; that "every man's shoes 
were made on one and the same last, and that all 
were governed by one inflexible rule." "Augus- 
tine," he says, "acted more wisely, teaching that 
all men were not to be measured by the same rule." 
So much, however, seems to be true in regard to 
the members of the cloister of Erfurt, that they 
looked with jealousy upon the distinguished and 
learned novitiate, and felt a satisfaction in seeing 
him performing the menial offices of doorkeeper, 
sweep, and street-beggar in the very city where 
he had so many literary acquaintances to witness 
his humiliation. 

With what patience and acquiescence he sub- 
mitted to all the duties and tasks imposed upon 
him by his order, we learn from his own declara- 
tions. These are his words : " I was a monk with- 
out ever complaining; of that I can justly boast." 
" When I first became a monk, I stormed the very 
heavens." He speaks of having exposed himself 
in watchings, " till he nearly perished in the cold;" 
of having afflicted and tortured his body, " so that 
he could not have endured it long;" and of having 
prayed, fasted, watched, and inflicted bodily pains, 
and so seriously "injured his head, that he had 
not recovered, and never should so long as he 
lived." 

For the sake of the connection, we will intro- 
duce here a passage that probably relates, in part 



M. 21-25.] THE NOVITIATE. 85 

at least, to a somewhat later period: "I verily 
kept the rules of my order with great diligence 
and zeal. I often fasted till I was sick and well- 
nigh dead. Not only did I observe the rules 
straitly, but I took upon myself other tasks, 
and had a peculiar way by myself. My seniors 
strove against this, my singularity, and with good 
reason. I was a shameful persecutor and de- 
stroyer of my own body; for I fasted, prayed, 
watched, and made myself weary and languid 
beyond what I could endure." 

Connected with such a state of mind and such 
religious severities, Ave should naturally expect to 
see the greatest reverence for the papal hierarchy. 
It cannot be surprising, therefore, to hear him say, 
"I can with truth affirm, if there ever was one 
who held the papal laws and the traditions of the 
fathers in reverence, I was such." " I had an un- 
feigned veneration for the pope, not seeking after 
livings, or places, and such-like, but whatsoever I 
did, I did with singleness of heart, with upright 
zeal, and for the glory of God." " So great was the 
pope in my esteem, that I accounted the least de- 
viation from him a sin, deserving damnation; and 
this ungodly opinion made me to hold Huss as an 
accursed heretic, so much so that I esteemed it a 
sin only to think of him ; and, to defend the pope's 
authority, I would have kindled the flames to burn 
the heretic, and should have believed that I was 
thereby showing the truest obedience to God." 

We have learned that Luther was driven to the 
cloister by a disquieted conscience and supersti- 
tious fears and hopes. It is natural to inquire 

8 



8G 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1008. 



how far his conscience was quieted, his fears al- 
layed, and his hopes realized. Let him answer 
for himself : "When I was a monk, I was out- 
wardly much holier than now. I kept the vow I 
had taken with the greatest zeal and diligence by 
day and by night, and yet I found no rest, for all 
the consolations which I drew from my own right- 
eousness and works were ineffectual." " Doubts 
all the while cleaved to my conscience, and I 
thought within myself, Who knoweth whether this 
is pleasing and acceptable to God, or not." " Even 
when I was the most devout, I went as a doubter 
to the altar, and as a doubter I came away again. 
If I had made my confession, I was still in doubt ; 
if, upon that, I left off prayer, I was again in 
doubt; for we were wrapt in the conceit that we 
could not pray and should not be heard, unless we 
were wholly pure and without sin, like the saints 
in heaven." It is difficult for us to conceive of 
the anguish which a tender and delicate conscience 
would feel under the influence of the doctrines 
which were then taught in respect to confession. 
Who could be certain that he knew the nature 
and extent of all the sins he had committed ? 
What infallible rule had he by which he could 
judge rightly of all the acts and circumstances 
connected with sin ? Of his motives and inten- 
tions he might have a tolerably accurate know- 
ledge, but how was it with acts in themselves 
considered, which were the main 1 thing in the 
ethics of the confessional ? Even of those sins 
which were defined and measured by the rules of 
the order, since they related to a thousand trifling 



M. 21-25.] 



THE NOVITIATE. 



87 



acts recurring almost every moment, few persons 
could retain a distinct consciousness or recollec- 
tion so as to be perfectly sure at each confession 
that nothing was omitted nor forgotten ; and yet 
one such omission vitiated the whole confession 
and rendered prayer useless. This was the scor- 
pion sting which Luther so keenly felt. He al- 
ways doubted the completeness of his confession. 
If he prayed, it might be of no use ; if he neg- 
lected prayer, his doubts were increased. " The 
confession was an intolerable burden laid upon 
the church. For there was no sorer trouble, as 
we all know by experience, than that every one 
should be compelled to make confession, or be 
guilty of a mortal sin. Moreover, confession was 
beset with so many difficulties, and the conscience 
distressed with the reckoning up of so many dif- 
ferent classes of sins, that no one could make his 
confession complete enough." "If the confession 
was not perfect, and done with exceeding particu- 
larity, the absolution was of none effect, nor were 
the sins forgiven. Therewith were the people so 
hard pressed, that there was no one but must de- 
spair of confessing so perfectly, (it was in very 
deed impossible;) and no conscience could abide 
the trial, nor have confidence in the absolution." 

"When I was a monk, I used oft-times to be 
very contrite for my sins, and to confess them all 
as much as was possible; and I performed the 
penance that was enjoined unto me as straitly and 
as rigorously as I could. Yet for all this, my con- 
science could never be tranquil and assured, but I 
was always in doubt, and said to myself, This or 



88 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



that hast thou not done rightly; thou wast not 
sorrowful enough for thy sins; this and that sin 
thou didst forget in thy confession." Though he 
" confessed every day, it was all in vain." " The 
smart and anguish of conscience/' he elsewhere 
says, " were as great in the cowl as they were be- 
fore out of it." These declarations may easily be 
reconciled with others which represent him as feel- 
ing happy when he could say, " To-day I have done 
no wrong ; I have been obedient to my prior, have 
fasted and prayed, and God is gracious toward me." 

Such occasions were of rare occurrence, and 
were the results of that superficial feeling which 
the strongest and profoundest minds are liable 
to have, in those passive moments when they sur- 
render themselves to the influence of popular 
belief. But the chief current of Luther's feel- 
ings, in spite of all the violence he did to himself 
to prevent it, ran counter to that belief, so that in 
after-life, when reverting to these scenes, he could 
speak of the predominant state of his mind as 
though there had been no other. The effect of 
such a view of religion as he then entertained, 
and of such an experience as he had of a daily 
deviation from its precepts, is truthfully described 
in the following words, undoubtedly the utterance 
of his own heart : " He who thinketh that a 
Christian ought to be without any fault, and yet 
seeth many faults in himself, must needs be con- 
sumed at length with melancholy and despair." 

Not only did Luther suffer from the unexpected 
discovery of the real sinfulness of his heart, but 
he was scarcely less tormented with imaginary 



M. 21-25.] 



THE NOVITIATE. 



3D 



sins and false scruples of conscience. " The 
devil," says he, "seizeth upon some trifling sin, 
and by that casteth into the shade all the good 
works which thou hast thy life long done, so 
that thou dost see nothing but this one sin." " I 
speak from experience; I know his wiles and 
subtleties, how of one little mote he maketh 
many great beams, that is to say, of that which 
is the least sin, or no sin at all, he maketh a very 
hell, so that the wide world is too strait for one." 

The fiery imagination of Luther, which solitude 
served but to kindle into an intenser flame, the 
strength and depth of his religious passions, which 
found no such vent as they needed, and the be- 
wildered state of his mind in respect to the ele- 
mentary principles of Christianity, all conspired 
to give him an air of peculiarity which the monks 
could not comprehend. Too much of original 
character lay concealed beneath that demure yet 
singular deportment to be controlled even by the 
iron forms which the order laid upon all alike. 

Luther's mind had an individuality which sepa- 
rated him from the mass and heightened his soli- 
tude. In the mental processes through which he 
passed, he was alone and without sympathy. He 
was driven, at last, almost to phrensy. Often 
was his bodily frame overpowered by the inten- 
sity of his excited feelings, and there was no 
skilful physician of the soul at hand to prescribe 
for his case. Speaking on this point, he observes, 
"In my huge temptations, which consumed my 
body so that I well-nigh lost my breath, and hardly 
knew whether I had still any brain left or not, 

8* 



90 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



there was no one to comfort me." If he opened 
his heart to any one, the only reply he received 
was, "I know nothing about such temptations," 
and he was left to the gloomy conclusion, that he 
"was to be alone in this disconsolate state." But, 
as the melancholy mood here described only com- 
menced during his novitiate and extended through 
the second year of his life in the cloister, we 
must break off the narration for the present, and 
direct our attention to his other employments 
during the first year. 

" When I was received into the cloister," he said 
once to his friends, according to the Gotha manu- 
script, " I called for a Bible, and the brethren gave 
me one. It was bound in red morocco. I made 
myself so familiar with it that I knew on what 
page and in what place every passage stood. Had 
I kept it, I should have been an excellent textual 
theologian. ±\o other study than that of the Holy 
Scriptures pleased me. I read therein zealously, 
and imprinted them on my memory. Many a time 
a single pregnant passage would abide the whole 
day long in my mind. On weighty words of 
the prophets, which even now I remember well, I 
cogitated again and again, although I could not 
apprehend the meaning thereof; as, for example, 
Ave read in Ezekiel, 4 1 desire not the death of the 
sinner.'" Again he says, "Not till after I had 
made myself acquainted with the Bible, did I 
study the writers." By "the writers," he must 
mean the scholastic theologians. For he himself 
says, in a preface to Bugenhagen's edition of Atha- 
nasiuS; that he " read the colloquy between Atha- 



S. 21-25.] 



THE NOVITIATE. 



91 



nasius and Alius with great interest, in the first 
year of his monastic life, at Erfnrt." No doubt he 
also read at that time the legends of the saints, the 
Lives of the Fathers, (a favourite book with him,) 
and other works of a similar tendency. The new 
rules of the order prescribed, however, the diligent 
study of the Scriptures, and the probationary year 
appears to have been designated for biblical study. 
But we must guard against being misled by the 
fact that there was such a rule, and by the name 
that was given to the study. Neither the senti- 
ments nor the practice of the Erfurt monks coin- 
cided with the rule. Though they could not refuse 
to give a Bible to the novice who requested it, they 
discouraged the study of it. Besides, Luther's 
time was so much occupied with other useless 
and menial services that Iris progress in the study 
of the Scriptures must have been much impeded. 
He was, furthermore, destitute of suitable helps 
for studying them critically. He did not see the 
Bible in the original, nor had he then any know- 
ledge of the Greek or Hebrew. He had only 
the Latin Vulgate, with a most miserable com- 
mentary, called the Glossa Ordinaria, or Common 
Gloss. And, what is more than all, he brought to 
the study of the Bible a mind overborne with mo- 
nastic and papal prejudices. 

The method of what was called biblical studies, 
as then pursued in the monasteries and universities, 
was entirely different from that to which we, in the 
present age, are accustomed. The Bible was not stu- 
died as a whole, nor any of the sacred writers in a 
connected manner, so as to learn the scope and gene- 



92 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1 508. 



ral design of the book. Of course, the author was not 
made his own interpreter, nor were any sound rules 
of interpretation observed. A text was, in the first 
place, taken out of its connection, and interpreted 
metaphysically, as if it were a scholastic maxim, 
and forced at once into an unnatural connection 
with dialectics, or used as a secondary and subsi- 
diary support of a doctrine which rested mainly 
on a metaphysical basis. In the next place, the 
literal sense was deserted at pleasure, and an 
allegorical one introduced to suit the object of the 
interpreter. The absurd conceits of Origen, Je- 
rome, and other early fathers of the church, were 
handed down by tradition, and the study of such 
traditionary interpretation, collected in compends, 
was called biblical study. The false interpreta- 
tions to be found in the papal bulls and decretals, 
and in the approved works of the scholastic wri- 
ters, would furnish a large chapter in the book of 
human follies. 

Luther was not only under these influences, but 
yielded to them. In a letter to Spalatin, June 29, 
1518, he says, "I myself followed the doctrines and 
rules of the scholastic theology, and according to 
them did I desire to handle the Scriptures.* 1 In his 
Commentary on Genesis ix. he says, "I have often 
told you of what sort theology was when I first be- 
gan the study thereof. The letter, said they, killeth. 
For this cause I was especially opposed to Lyra 
more than to all other teachers, because he cleaved 
so diligently to the text and abode by it. But 
now, for this selfsame reason, I prefer him before 
all other interpreters of Scripture." Again, he 



JE. 21-25.] 



TAKING THE VOW. 



93 



says, "When I was young, I loved allegories to 
such a degree that I thought every thing must be 
toned into allegories. To this Origen and Je- 
rome gave occasion, whom I esteemed as being 
the greatest theologians." Well, indeed, might 
he afterward say, "I did not learn all my the- 
ology at once." The beginning with him was 
feeble, and, the sincerity of his heart excepted, 
was of a very unpromising character. 

Section III. — Taking the Voic — Second Tear in the Cloister. 
1506. 

Such was Luther's year of probation ; a year in 
which he experienced some gratification in the 
study, however defective, of the Scriptures which 
he loved ; but, on the other hand, was disappointed 
in respect to what was of the highest concern to 
him, namely, obtaining peace within himself. If 
it excite our wonder that he did not, at this time, 
while it was in his power, and before taking the 
irrevocable vow, determine to abandon the monas- 
tic life, and return to the university, or seek some 
other occupation, there are other considerations 
which may remove our surprise. Luther's mind 
was of too determined a character to be turned 
from its course by any slight considerations. He 
had been trained in the school of adversity, and 
could courageously bear the privations and suffer- 
ings attendant on his present mode of life. The 
subject of religion interested him more than all 
others, and to this he could give his undivided 
attention here more easily than elsewhere. Here, 



94 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



too, he found a few friends, such as Usingen, his 
former teacher, Lange, whom he assisted in study, 
and the excellent Siisse, who is said to have been 
his room-mate. If his mind had as yet found no 
rest, possibly a longer trial, after actually taking 
the vow, might prove more effectual. Certainly 
a return to the world would imply a want of firm- 
ness, and would, besides, promise no better results. 
Even if there had been no disgrace attached to 
leaving the cloister at the close of the novitiate, 
this would probably have made no difference with 
Luther, who seems to have made up his mind 
from the beginning. Speaking of the unsuccessful 
attempt of the friends who endeavoured to keep 
him from entering the monastery, he says, " Thus 
did I abide by my purpose, thinking never again 
to come out of the cloister." 

The rules of the order prescribed that the prior 
should, at the close of the year of probation, exa- 
mine the novice as to his being worthy of admis- 
sion. If the result was favourable, the bell was 
to be rung and the monks to assemble, and the 
prior to take his place before the steps at the 
altar, and to address the kneeling novice in the 
following words : " You have become acquainted 
with the severe life of our order, and must now 
decide whether you will return to the world, or 
be consecrated to the order." If the answer was 
in favour of the latter, the individual was directed 
to put off the garb of the novice, and the part of 
the service beginning with the words, " Our help 
is in the name of the Lord," was repeated, where- 
upon the prior laid the monk's apparel upon him, 



M. 21-25.] 



TAKING THE VOW. 



95 



and then the ceremonies were very similar to 
those of entering the novitiate, described above. 
The vow was taken, in connection with the impo- 
sition of the hands of the prior, in these words, 
as reported by Cochlgeus : " I, brother Martin, do 
make profession and promise obedience unto Al- 
mighty God, unto Mary always a virgin, and unto 
thee, my brother, the prior of this cloister, in the 
name and in the stead of the general prior of the 
order of the Eremites of St. Augustine, the bishop 
and of his regular successors, to live in poverty 
and chastity, after the rule of the said St. Au- 
gustine, until death." Then a burning taper w T as 
put into his hand, prayer was offered for him by 
the prior, and the brethren sung the hymn, Veni 
Sande Spiritus, u Come, Holy Spirit," after w T hich 
the new brother w r as conducted by them to the 
choir of the church, and received of them the 
fraternal kiss. 

The most extravagant ideas were entertained 
of the effect of such a formal consecration to a 
monastic life. As baptism was supposed to take 
away all sin, so this monastic baptism, (as the 
initiation was called,) was said to be equally 
efficacious, and to have even a greater sanctity. 
Hence Luther was congratulated on the present 
occasion as being, by his own act, freed from sin 
and introduced into a state of primeval innocence. 
With this he felt flattered and pleased for the 
moment, but upon experiencing its utter futility^ 
he came at length to regard it as "a pill of in- 
fernal poison, sugared over on the outside." In 
his brief reply to George, Duke of Saxony, he 



96 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



said : " That the monks likened their monastic 
life to Christian baptism, they cannot deny; for 
thus have they taught and practised, throughout, 
in all the world. When I made my profession, I 
was congratulated by the prior, the convent and 
the confessor, that I was now innocent as a child 
which had just come forth pure from its baptism. 
And verily I could heartily rejoice over such a 
glorious deed, — that I was such an excellent one, 
who could, by his own works, without the blood 
of Christ, make himself so good and holy, and 
that too so easily and so quickly. But though 
I could hear with satisfaction such sweet praise 
and shining words concerning my own doings, and 
let myself pass for a wonder-worker, who could, 
in such a wanton manner, make himself holy and 
devour both death and the devil, yet would it 
fail when it came to the trial. For when only a 
small temptation of death or of sin came upon me, 
I fell away, and found no succour either in bap- 
tism or in the monastic state. Then was I the 
most miserable man on earth ; day and night 
there was nothing but lamentation and despair, 
from which no one could deliver me. So I was 
bathed and baptized in my monasticism, and verily 
had the sweating sickness." 

Luther was three years in the cloister at Erfurt. 
Of his employments and of his state of mind dur- 
ing the first year, or the year of his novitiate, we 
have already had an account. During the second 
year, with which we are now concerned, he was 
devoted to the study of the scholastic theology 
and to his preparation for the priesthood. His 



M. 21-25.] SECOND YEAR IN THE CLOISTER. 97 

religious feelings continued of the same character, 
substantially, as in the first year, except that his 
anxieties and his sorrows increased. It was not 
till the third year, the year of his priesthood, 
that new views on the subject of works and of 
justification shed light upon his mind and joy 
upon his path, and not till after that change did 
he take up the study of the early Christian fathers. 

Here then we have the means of deciding, in 
most cases, to which of these three periods his 
numerous allusions to his monastic life in Er- 
furt refer. If, in any passage, there be a refer- 
ence to the duties of the priestly office, saying 
mass, for example, or to the study of Augustine 
and other church fathers, or to more cheerful and 
confiding feelings in respect to God, as a loving 
father rather than as a stern revenger, and to 
Christ, as a compassionate saviour rather than 
as a dreaded judge, we may safely apply the pas- 
sage to the last year of Luther's residence in 
Erfurt. If a state of bodily and mental suffer- 
ing be alone referred to, it is doubtful whether 
Luther had the first or second year in mind. 
But if harsh treatment or the regular study of 
the Scriptures be mentioned in the same connec- 
tion, the first year is thereby indicated ; whereas 
if occupation with the scholastic theologians and 
with works which treat of the duties of the priest- 
hood be alluded to, the second year only can be 
meant. 

Of the personal appearance of Luther about the 
time of this second year, probably near its close, 
(this being the time of his most intense mental 



98 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



anguish,) we have a representation in a portrait 
taken in 1572, preserved in a church at Weimar, 
when the artist had the means of ascertaining 
how Luther appeared at the time referred to. 
This is furthermore supported by a letter of Lu- 
ther's, in which he describes his features as they 
then were. The youthful flush had disappeared 
from his countenance. His black, piercing and 
fiery eye was now sunken. His small and plump 
face had become thin and spare, and with all his 
sadness and dejection there was a solemn earnest- 
ness in his mien, and his look bespoke a mind in 
conflict and yet determined. 

It was, no doubt, either during the latter part 
of the preceding year, or near the beginning of 
this, that Staupitz, general vicar or provincial of 
the order in Germany, on one of his visitations 
to examine into the state of the several cloisters 
under his care, first had his attention attracted 
to Luther. By the rules of the order, drawn up 
by himself, it was made his duty, as general 
vicar, to visit the convents for the purpose of 
seeing that a paternal discipline was maintained, 
and particularly to inquire in respect to the care 
taken of the sick, the instruction given to novices, 
and the observance of the fasts and other pre- 
scribed duties. Staupitz was a model which all 
provincials might well imitate. He made it his 
concern to promote the study of the Bible, though 
his efforts were not always seconded by others, 
and to seek out and encourage young men of 
talent and of elevated religious character, and to 
inspire them, as far as possible, with a sincere 



JE. 21-25.] SECOND YEAR IN THE CLOISTER, 



99 



love of God and of man. Such a person as Lu- 
ther, — learned, able, ardent, perplexed, abused, 
and sinking both in health and in spirits, — could 
not escape his notice. His singular attachment 
to the Bible Tvas no less gratifying than it was 
surprising to Staupitz. " The monks," says Lu- 
ther, " did not study the Scriptures, save here and 
there one, who like myself took singular delight 
therein. Often did I read them in the cloister, 
to the great astonishment of Doctor Staupitz." 

Here commenced the most important acquaint- 
ance which Luther ever formed. Staupitz, at 
once, after knowing the character of the young 
monk, directed the prior to have more regard to 
his standing and previous habits, and to release 
him from those humiliating and onerous tasks 
which had been imposed upon him. He, at the 
same time, encouraged Luther to prosecute the 
study of the Scriptures with unabated zeal, till 
he should be able to turn readily to any passage 
that should be named. Luther now, for the first 
time, found a spiritual guide who was, in every 
essential respect, qualified to treat such critical 
cases as his, — one who, in his comprehensive 
view, recognised as well the laws of the physical 
and the mental constitution as the fundamental 
principles of the gospel. A varied order of liv- 
ing and new trains of thought, originating in sug- 
gestions respecting the true nature of Christian- 
ity, which were then as strange as those which 
were once made to the two disciples on the way 
to Emmaus, were the beginnings of a healthful 
process, which ultimately wrought a complete re- 



100 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[150^-1508. 



ligious revolution in Luther's mind, and laid, in 
his personal experience, the foundation for the 
Reformation. In a letter to Staupitz in 1523, 
he says, " I ought not to be unmindful or for- 
getful of you, through whom the light of the gos- 
pel first began to shine out of darkness into our 
hearts." 

John von Staupitz was descended from an an- 
cient noble family of Meissen or Misnia in the 
kingdom of Saxony. In order to gratify his love 
of study and pious meditation, he became an Au- 
gustinian monk, and in various universities went 
through an extended course of scholastic philoso- 
phy and theology. In 1497, he was made master 
of arts, lector or public reader of his order, and 
connected himself with the University of Tubin- 
gen, in the south of Germany. He rose rapidly 
to distinction; for in the following year he was 
appointed prior of the convent of Tubingen; in 
the next, he took the degree of biblical bachelor, 
or the first degree in theology, that of sententiary, 
or the second degree, and in 1500, that of doctor 
of divinity. 

Early disgusted with the dry and unprofita- 
ble speculations of the scholastic theologians, he 
turned his attention to what are called the mysti- 
cal theologians, or the spiritual and experimental 
Christians of that age. Bernard and Gerson were 
his favourite authors, men in whom a spirit not 
unlike that of the pious Thomas a Kempis pre- 
vailed. The influence of some of the professors 
at Tubingen, especially of Sommerhard, united to 
that of the writers above named, led him to ap- 



JE. 21-25.] SECOND YEAR IN THE CLOISTER. 101 

preciate the Bible more highly than any other 
book, and to look to that as his only safe guide 
in religion and the only sure foundation of Chris- 
tian theology. " It is needful for us," says Stau- 
pitz, " to study the Holy Scriptures with the 
greatest diligence and with all humility, and 
earnestly to pray that we fail not of the truth 
of the gospel." He regarded that principle of 
love which the Holy Spirit originates in us, and 
which produces a union with Christ by faith, as 
constituting the essence of religion. This is not 
produced by any good works of ours, but is itself 
the producer of all good works. Our piety, there- 
fore, does not depend on the performance of rites 
and ceremonies prescribed by the church, nor can 
it be estimated by such a standard; but it de- 
pends on the state of the heart and on the exer- 
cise of the spiritual affections. Our union with 
the church is not the cause of our union with 
Christ, but vice versa. "First, God giveth unto 
all the faithful one heart and one soul in him, and 
on this wise unite th them together, and of this 
cometh the unity of the church." 

These are some of the characteristic features 
of the piety and faith of Staupitz; and in them 
we cannot fail to recognise the undeveloped 
germs of salvation by grace and justification by 
faith in Christ, as afterward maintained by his 
greater disciple. Such a spirit was the very 
opposite of that which animated Tetzel in the 
sale of indulgences. 

When, in 1502, the Elector Frederic of Saxony 
founded the University of Wittenberg, he em- 

9* 



102 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



ployed Staupitz first as a counsellor and nego- 
tiator, and then as a dean or superintendent of 
the theological faculty. In the next year, the 
chapter of the order chose him general vicar; 
and it was in this capacity that he was hrought 
into connection with Luther. His influence upon 
the cloisters under his charge was of the happiest 
kind; and his efforts to promote biblical studies, 
and to revive the spirituality of his brethren, no 
doubt prepared, in part, the way for multitudes 
of them to embrace the doctrines of Luther. 
The testimony of the latter to his worth may 
properly have place here : " He was an estima- 
ble man ; not only worthy to be listened' to with 
reverence, as a scholar, in seats of learning and 
in the church; but also at the court of princes 
and in the society of the great, he was held in 
much estimation for his knowledge of the world." 

From the nature of the case, we could not sup- 
pose that the first interview of Staupitz with Lu- 
ther could produce any great and sudden change 
in the latter. At that time they were attached 
to opposite systems of theology, the mystic and 
the scholastic ; arid Luther's views were so inter- 
woven with his entire character and previous 
training, that they could not be surrendered with- 
out many an inward struggle. Now we are ex- 
pressly informed by Melancthon that Luther's 
mind did not find relief till after he commenced 
the study of the Christian fathers ; and we learn 
elsewhere that this did not take place till the 
third year of his residence in the cloister of Er- 
furt. Consequently, there was an interval of 



JE. 21-25.] SECOND YEAR IN THE CLOISTER. 103 

nearly a year at least, and, according to the com- 
mon view, (namely, that Staupitz saw Luther 
during his novitiate,) an interval of nearly two 
years between their first acquaintance and the 
conversion of Luther to the evangelical faith. 

From all the circumstances of the case, we are 
not allowed to suppose that Staupitz, at the first 
interview, did more than to gain some general 
information in respect to Luther's character and 
condition, and make a few suggestions and leave 
them to their effect. But though the general 
vicar was well grounded in the truth, and the 
young monk almost equally fortified in error, 
there was one point of strong sympathy between 
them, and that was the love of the Bible. But 
at this time the Bible was to Luther a very dark 
book. It came to him in his spiritual ignorance, 
almost buried under the rubbish of the papal 
glosses. The gospel itself was turned into law; 
Christ was but a second Moses, a stern legislator 
and judge, from whom the oppressed sinner fled 
in terror, because he had not a sufficient right- 
eousness of his own, and knew nothing of the 
justifying righteousness of Christ. Such was the 
state in which Staupitz found Luther. 

Instead of proceeding from a consciousness of 
the necessity of redemption and gratuitous justi- 
fication to the ascertainment of its reality and 
availableness, the benighted though learned young 
monk went back, in a contrary direction, to specu- 
late upon the origin and nature of evil, and upon 
the mysteries of Providence, over which lay a 
pall of still denser darkness. Thus he was some- 



104 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



times subject to the keenest despair, and some- 
times to the most distressing thoughts. "Why" 
said Staupitz to him, " do you vex yourself with 
these speculations and high thoughts ? Look upon 
the wounds of Christ and upon the blood which he 
shed for you. From these will the counsels of 
God shine forth." That is, in the cross of Christ 
is the best solution of the mysteries of Providence 
in respect to the eternal destinies of men. This un- 
doubtedly took place at the first confession which 
Luther made to Staupitz as the general vicar. 

The scene, according to Luther, was equally 
surprising to both parties. Such a confession, 
going so deeply into the nature of sin as con- 
sisting not so much in single acts as in a moral 
state ; a confession of the doubts and daring spe- 
culations of a great mind abused in its religious 
training, and consequently in a perfectly chaotic 
state, Staupitz had never before heard. Luther 
knew no better what to make of the unexpected 
and strange directions given him by Staupitz. 
No name was more terrific to him than that of 
Christ, an avenger and a judge, to whom he did 
not dare to approach without first preparing the 
way by engaging in his behalf the more tender 
sympathies of the virgin mother, to soften the 
severities of her Divine Son. In a sermon of 
his, first published in 1547, Luther says, "Under 
the papacy I fled from Christ, and trembled at 
his name ; ... for I looked upon him as a judge 
only ; and in this grievously erred. St. Bernard, 
otherwise a godly man, said : £ Behold, in all the 
gospel, how sharply Christ often rebuketh, up- 



M. 21-25.] SECOND YEAR IN THE CLOISTER. 105 

braideth and condemneth the Pharisees, and flieth 
at them, while the Virgin Mary is ever gentle and 
kind, and never spoke or uttered one hard word.' 
From hence arose the opinion that Christ re- 
proacheth and rebuketh, while Mary is all sweet- 
ness and love." 

The first confession only created mutual sur- 
prise, and Luther was still left in his sadness. 
This we learn from an occurrence that seems to 
have taken place soon after. At table, Staupitz, 
seeing Luther still downcast and clouded with 
gloom, said to him, " Why are you in such heavi- 
ness, brother Martin?" "Alas!" replied Luther, 
" what then am I to do?" Staupitz rejoined, "I 
have never had knowledge nor experience of such 
temptations ; but so far forth as I can perceive, 
they are more needful for you than your food 
and drink. You know not how salutary and ne- 
cessary they are for you. God bringeth them 
not upon you without a purpose. Without them, 
nothing good would come of you. You will yet 
see that God hath great things to accomplish 
through you." Numerous passages in Luther's 
later writings were evidently suggested by his 
own experience as here described. One will here 
suffice as a specimen : " When the heart of man 
is in great anguish, either the Spirit of God must 
needs give him gracious assurance, or there must 
be a godly friend to comfort him and take from 
him his doubts by the word of God." But as 
we afterward find Luther in his former state of 
mind, and devoting himself with more zeal than 
ever to the study of the scholastic writers, we 



106 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



must conclude that no great and permanent change 
was effected in his religious views during Stau- 
pitz's first visit. 

Section IV. — Luther studies the Scholastic Theology. 

The effect of Staupitz's influence was delayed 
by the fact that, according to the usages of the 
order which he could not think of setting aside, 
the monk who had finished his biblical studies, 
as they were improperly called, was to direct his 
chief attention next to the scholastic theology. 
Staupitz was not the man for energetic or vio- 
lent reform ; and Usingen, whose influence in the 
Erfurt convent was now great and who was pro- 
bably Luther's preceptor at this time, was a zeal- 
ous scholastic. Luther himself says, "When I 
had taken the vow, they took the Bible from me 
again and gave me the sophistical books. But 
as often as I could, I would hide myself in the 
library, and give my mind to the Bible." 

Luther, who never shrank from a task because 
it was hard or disagreeable, but, on the contrary, 
with a consciousness of his power, took pleasure 
in its full exercise, now studied with iron dili- 
gence the sentences of the Fathers, as collected 
into digests by the schoolmen. Biel and D'Ailly 
he is said to have learned by heart. With the 
writings of Occam, Aquinas and Scotus, he made 
himself very familiar. 

Here we find Luther in a new conflict — his own 
inclination and religious wants, together with the 
influence of Staupitz, leading him to the Bible; 



M. 21-25.] PREPARATION FOR THE PRIESTHOOD. 107 

the influence of the convent and his occupation 
with the scholastic writers, on the other hand, 
strengthening the false impressions under which 
he had grown up. Both these contending ele- 
ments were having their effect upon Luther, and 
he was to be prepared for his great work by feel- 
ing the full power and coining to a complete know- 
ledge of each. 

Section V. — Luther's Preparation for the Priesthood. 

This also constituted a part of Luther's occu- 
pation during his second year in the monastery. 
Biel, the last of the scholastics, his favourite 
author, was the writer most studied on this sub- 
ject. In what follows, it will be made to appear 
that such employment, no less than the study of 
the scholastic writers in general, was adapted to 
carry him further and further from the Bible and 
the spiritualism of Staupitz, and to involve him 
more deeply than ever in the labyrinth of papal 
error. We find here a striking analogy to the 
mazes of error through which the great Augus- 
tine passed, when, half in despair and half in 
docile submission, he was conducted, step by step, 
through the hollow and deceitful system of the 
Manicheans. The church service with which the 
priest was concerned was a complicated system 
of symbolical acts, at the same time exercising 
the ingenuity and furnishing ample materials for 
exciting the imagination of the students. The 
central point in the system was the service of 
mass*. To this the selected passages of Scrip- 



108 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



ture, their arrangement, the prayers and the 
hymns all referred. The antiphonies and the 
priestly ornaments both relate to the sacrificial 
offering in the mass. The rites themselves were 
sacred mysteries, and the officiating priest a 
sacred person. Luther never lost the impres- 
sion which these imposing and solemn, though 
false, forms of worship made upon him. Christ 
was considered as daily repeating the offering up 
of himself. 

Biel had written an extended work on the 
mass-service, which was adopted as a text-book 
in the monasteries. He there teaches, that men 
must repair to the saints, through whose inter- 
cessions we are to be saved ; that the Father has 
given over one-half of his kingdom to the Virgin, 
the queen of heaven ; that of the two attributes of 
justice and mercy, he has surrendered the latter 
to her, while he retains the former. The priest 
is intercessor between God and man. He offers 
the sacrifice of Christ in the supper, and can 
extend its efficacy to others. This neither the 
Virgin Mary nor the angels can do. 

In another part of the work, Biel has several 
nice disquisitions on such questions as, whether 
the bread must always be made of wheat; how 
much ought to be consecrated at a time ; what 
would be the effect of a grammatical blunder on the 
part of the priest in repeating the words. Thus 
Luther was trained by daily study to a system of 
practical religion which subsequently, when he 
was more enlightened, became abhorrent to all the 
feelings of his heart. "Let any one," he says, 



JE. 21-25.] PREPARATION FOR THE PRIESTHOOD. 109 

"read Biel on the Canonical Constitutions con- 
cerning the mass, which is nevertheless the best 
book of the Papists on that matter, and see what 
execrable things are therein contained. That was 
once my book." Again : " Gabriel Biel wrote a 
book on the Canonical Constitutions, which was 
looked upon as the best in these times ; . . . when 
I read it, my heart did bleed," that is, was in an- 
guish from the scruples which it caused in respect 
to the duties of the priesthood. 

The rules laid down were carried to an astonish- 
ing minuteness of detail, and the least deviation 
from them was represented as highly sinful. Lu- 
ther was so conscious of his sinfulness, that he 
often despaired of ever being able to officiate wor- 
thily as a priest. We, in this age, cannot appre- 
ciate his feelings in this respect, unless we place 
ourselves, in imagination, precisely in his circum- 
stances, and learn with him to feel a creeping 
horror at the ghostly superstitions of the times. 
His own language will best transport us to the 
gloomy cell and its spiritual terrors, and to the 
chapel with its over-awing mysteries. "Those 
priests," he remarks, "who were right earnest in 
religion, were so terrified in pronouncing the 
words of Christ, delivered at the institution of 
the supper, that they trembled and quaked when 
they came to the clause, ' This is my body;' for 
they must repeat every word without the least 
error. He who stammered, or omitted a word, 
was guilty of a great sin. He was, moreover, to 
pronounce the words without any wandering 
thoughts." Again he says, " It was declared a 

10 



110 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1506-1608. 



mortal sin to leave out the word enim, (for,) or 
' aeterni, (eternal.) If one had forgotten whether 
he had j^ronounced a certain word or not. he could 
not make the matter sure by repetition. . . . Here 
was distress and anguish. . . . How sorely were 
we vexed with the mass, especially with the signs 
of the cross!" About fifty of these and some 
hundreds of other prescribed motions of the body 
were to be punctiliously observed in the mass-ser- 
vice. Special rules were given as to what was to 
be done if a little of the wine were spilled. No- 
thing can give us a better impression of the awe 
which the idea of Christ's real presence inspired 
than an incident which occurred but four years 
before Luther's death. In the year 1542, during 
the celebration of the Eucharist, some drops of 
the wine were accidentally spilled. Luther, Bu- 
genhagen and the officiating minister sprang in- 
stantly and licked it up with their tongues ! If 
such were the feelings with which the reformer 
noticed any little irregularity in this service in 
his old age, what must they have been when he 
was timidly preparing himself to become a Catholic 
priest ? 

In the mass itself, every thing is Jewish and 
legal. Christ's original sacrifice is regarded as 
atoning only for original sin; all other sins were 
to be atoned for in the mass. Through the inter- 
cession of the saints, the sacrament effects an 
ablution from all actual sin, a defence against all 
dangers, against all the evils incident to the body 
or the mind, against the assaults of Satan, and a 
remission of the sins of the dead as well as of the 



21-25.] 



CONSECRATION AS PRIEST. 



Ill 



living. How strangely is Christ here thrown into 
the back-ground, and saints and priests raised to 
an impious eminence ! How is the cross of Christ 
obscured, and an empty rite, a human invention, 
covered with the halo of a divine glory! 

Section VI. — Luther's Consecration as Priest in 1507. 

The day appointed for his ordination as priest, 
the 2d of May, 1507, at length arrived. Such a 
day was of too solemn interest, as it was observed 
at that time, to be allowed to pass without the 
presence of Luther's father, who had continued 
during nearly the whole period of two years to 
be alienated from the son in consequence of his 
entering the monastery. It is a mistake com- 
mitted by several biographers of Luther, to re- 
present the reconciliation, and even the visit of 
John Luther at the convent, as having taken place 
in 1505, a short time after Luther entered his 
novitiate. Martin was his father's favourite son. 
He had been sent to the university and supported 
there by the fathers hard earnings, in order that 
he might become a learned jurist and rise to dis- 
tinction. His brilliant career as a student, and 
then as a teacher, and his entrance, under favour- 
able circumstances, upon the study of the law, 
served only to give poignancy to a father's grief, 
when he saw that all his high hopes were to be 
disappointed. He was so chagrined that he re- 
fused to see his son. On the death of two other 
sons, who were carried off by the plague, and on 
the intelligence that Martin had also died of the 



112 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-J 508. 



same, his heart began to relent. His friends took 
that opportunity to reason with him, and to con- 
vince him that he ought to be willing to make an 
offering to the Lord of whatever was dearest to 
him, even though it were his favourite child. To 
this reasoning he never assented, entertaining, as 
he always did, unfavourable views of monastic 
life ; but he became so far reconciled as to accept 
the invitation to be present at the ordination. 
He came in the pomp required by the occasion, 
mounted on horseback with attendants, twenty 
in all, and honoured his son with a present of 
twenty guldens. It was "with a sad, reluctant 
will," as Luther says, that his father finally con- 
sented to his permanent connection with a reli- 
gious order. " Well, be it so," was his language, 
" God grant that it may turn out for good." When 
they were all seated at table, at the time of the 
ordination, Luther, trusting to the favourable im- 
pressions produced by the occasion, and to the 
influence of the company around him, ventured 
to touch upon the delicate subject with his father, 
in the following language: "Dear father, what 
was the reason of thy objecting to my desire to 
become a monk? Why wast thou then so dis- 
pleased; and perhaps not reconciled yet? It is 
such a peaceful and godly life to live." He went 
on to recount the alarming events which he con- 
strued as indications of the divine will, and was 
warmly supported in all he said by the monks at 
his side. The plain-spoken and honest miner, 
notwithstanding the place and the occasion, boldly 
and tersely replied, "Didst thou never hear that 



M. 21-25.] CONSECRATION AS PRIEST. 



113 



a son must be obedient to his parents ? And you 
learned men, did you never read in the Scrip- 
tures, 'Thou shalt honour thy father and thy 
mother?' . . . God grant that those signs may 
not prove to be lying wonders of Satan." "Never," 
said Luther afterward, "did words sink deeper 
into a man's heart than did these of my father 
into mine." 

The sentiments of the age, in respect to the 
ordination of a priest, must be kept in view, if we 
would understand Luther's history at this period. 
He himself informs us that " a consecrated priest 
was as much above an ordinary Christian as the 
morning star was above a smoking taper." " It 
was a glorious thing to be a new priest, and to 
hold the first mass. Blessed the mother who had 
borne a priest. Father and mother and friends 
were filled with joy." The first mass was thought 
much of, and brought no little money, for the 
gifts and offerings came like drops of rain. The 
canonical hours were then observed with torch- 
lights. The young priest danced with his mother, 
if she was still living, and the bystanders, who 
looked on, wept for joy. If she was dead, he 
delivered her from purgatory. 

We learn from Luther, that the bishop at his 
ordination gave him the cup, and said to him, 
" Receive power to offer sacrifice for the living 
and the dead," and Luther adds, " It is a wonder 
that the ground did not open and swallow us both 
up." The words which Luther was then to em- 
ploy in the mass service, which immediately fol- 
lowed, were, "Accept, holy Father, this unble- 

10* 



114 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



mished sacrifice, which I, thine unworthy servant, 
offer unto thee, the true and living God, for my 
innumerable sins, offences and omissions, and for 
all who are here present, and for all believers liv- 
ing, and also for the dead, that it may be for our 
salvation." Luther was filled with trepidation 
and fear, and faltered in the service, and would 
have left the altar, which would have occasioned 
his excommunication, if his preceptor, who was 
standing by, had not stopped him. It was the 
idea of "standing before God without a medi- 
ator," as he had been taught to interpret the act, 
and other superstitious fears with which Bid's 
book had filled his head, — it was this that made 
him pause in terror when he came to the words, 
"the sacrifice which I offer unto thee." "From 
that time forth," says Luther, "I read mass with 
great fear." 

Still he became a very zealous and fanatical 
priest, as the following passages from his writings 
clearly show. We now find him going from vil- 
lage to village " begging cheese," and " saying 
mass" for the peasants, and sometimes " with 
difficulty refraining from laughter" at the blun- 
ders of the awkward country organists, who, as 
he says, would introduce the wrong piece in the 
midst of the service. How false the principles 
were upon which he then acted, he himself after- 
ward strongly testifies. "I was an unblushing 
Pharisee. When I had read mass and said my 
prayers, I put my trust and rested therein. I did 
not behold the sinner that lay hidden under that 
cloak, in my not trusting in the righteousness of 



JE. 21-25.] 



CONSECRATION AS PRIEST. 



115 



God, but in my own; in not giving God thanks 
for the sacrament, but in thinking he must be 
thankful and well pleased that I offered up his 
Son to him, that is, reproached and blasphemed 
him. When we were about to hold mass, we 
were wont to say, 'Now I will go and be midwife 
to the Virgin.' " Did we not know that the worst 
of abuses can be practised without remorse when 
false principles in religion are adopted, we could 
scarcely believe that such representations as the 
following could be made in sober earnest by Lu- 
ther. " Some had mass in order to become rich, 
and to be prosperous in their worldly business. 
Some, because they thought if they heard mass in 
the morning, then would they be secure through 
all the day against every suffering and peril. 
Some, by reason of sickness, and some for yet 
more foolish and sinful causes; and they could 
find abject priests, who, for money, would let 
them have their way. Furthermore, they have 
put a difference in the mass, making one better 
for this, another better for that occasion, by in- 
venting the seven-gulden mass.* The mass of 
the holy cross has a different virtue from the 
mass of the virgin. And everybody keeps still 
and lets the people go on, for the sake of the 
accursed lucre, flowing abundantly through the 
mass which has so many names and virtues." 
" Here, you yourselves know, my dear sirs," says 
Luther to his opponents in 1520, "what a scan- 
dalous trafficking and marketing you have made 



* A Saxon gulden in the 16th century was about sixty-two and a 
half cents. 



116 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



with your sacrament. This hath been the regu- 
lar and every-day business of you all, buying 
and selling throughout all the world so many 
thousands of masses for money, some for a gros- 
chen, (three cents,) some for eight pfennigs, (two 
cents,) and some for six. There is no excusing 
nor denying it." " I also, when I was a monk, 
was wont daily to confess, to fast, to read, to 
pray, and to offer sacrifice, to the end that, from 
the vigils, mass and other works, I could impart 
and sell something (merit) to the laity. The 
monks bartered their merits away for corn and 
wine, as well as for money, and gave formal re- 
ceipts, as is shown by many copies still extant, 
which ran thus : i In consideration of one bushel 
of wheat, we by this writing and contract make 
over to you the benefit of our fastings, watch- 
ings, mortifications, mass-services and such-like.' 
I, an arrant Papist, and much fiercer mass-monger 
than all the rest, could not distinguish between 
the mass and the sacrament any more than the 
common people. To me the mass and the sacra- 
ment upon the altar were one and the same 
thing, as they were to all of us at that time. 
.... I have lain sick in the infirmary, and 
viewed Christ in no other light than that of a 
severe judge, whom I must appease with my 

monastic works Therefore, my way and 

custom was, when I had finished my prayers or 
mass, always to conclude with such words as 
these : ' My dear Jesus, I come unto thee and 
entreat thee 'to be pleased with whatsoever I do 
and suffer in my order, and to accept it as a com- 



M. 21-25.] 



CONSECRATION AS PRIEST. 



117 



position for my sins ? Twenty years ago, if any 
one desired mass, he should have come and pur- 
chased it of me; I cleaved to it with all my 

heart and worshipped it I held mass 

every day, and knew not but that I was going 

straight to heaven I chose for myself 

twenty-one saints, read mass every day, calling 
on three of them each day, so as to complete the 
circuit every week. Especially did I invoke the 
holy Virgin, as her womanly heart was more 
easily touched, that she might appease her Son." 
Again, he says, " I verily thought that by invok- 
ing three saints daily, and by letting my body 
waste away with fastings and watchings, I should 
satisfy the law, and shield my conscience against 
the goad of the driver. But it all availed me 
nothing. The further I went on in this way, the 
more was I terrified, so that I should have given 
over in despair, had not Christ graciously re- 
garded me, and enlightened me with the light of 
his gospel." 

Need we any further proof that a long period 
intervened between his first conversations with 
Staupitz and the time that the true light of the 
gospel broke in upon his soul ? Here he repre- 
sents himself as in the grossest darkness and in 
the most wretched condition, long after he had 
entered upon the duties of the priesthood 5 and 
yet he was not ordained till May 2, 1507. So 
much is certain ; Staupitz was only occasionally 
at Erfurt, probably not more than twice or three 
times during Luther's residence in the cloister 
there. His first visit brought him in contact 



118 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



with Luther, but had not the effect to extricate 
the latter from the scholastic errors in which he 
was completely entangled. It was at a later 
period, and probably after the second visit of 
Staupitz at Erfurt, that Luther wrote to him 
frequently on the subject of his wretchedness. 
" When I was a monk," said Luther once to his 
friends, " I wrote oft-times to Dr. Staupitz ; and 
once I wrote to him, exclaiming, ' Oh, my sins, 
my sins !' Then Staupitz gave me this reply : 
'You would be without sin, and yet you have 
no proper sins. Christ forgives true sins, such 
as parricide, blasphemy, contempt of God, adul- 
tery, and such-like. These are sins indeed. You 
must have a register, in which stand veritable 
sins, if Christ is to help you.'" This paradoxi- 
cal language is explained in a letter of Luther 
to Spalatin, written in 1544. " Staupitz once 
comforted me in my sorrow, on this wise : You 
would be a painted sinner, and have a painted 
Christ as a Saviour. You must make up your 
mind that Christ is a very Saviour, and you a 
very sinner." The importance of these words to 
Luther, and their influence upon the character 
of Luther's subsequent religious views, as seen 
in all his writings, it will not be easy for the 
casual reader to apprehend. 

Luther was in serious error, and had great and 
incessant anguish on two points. He looked upon 
unintentional negligence or forgetfulness of the ar- 
bitrary rules of his order, which were as countless 
as they were foolish, as being a heinous sin against 
God ; and then he supposed great sinfulness was a 



JE. 21-25.] CONSECRATION AS PRIEST. 



119 



bar to forgiveness. On the former point, Staupitz 
used a little raillery ; and on the latter, he fur- 
nished Luther the cardinal doctrine of the Re- 
formation, that forgiveness did not depend at all 
upon the number or magnitude of one's sins, but 
simply and solely on penitence for them. This 
is what Luther means, where, hundreds of times 
in his sermons and other writings, he says that 
the Papists did not preach the gospel, which is 
the forgiveness of sins ; but the law, which is 
only the knowledge of sin, without a Saviour. 

We might fill the remainder of this chapter with 
passages from his works, which do nothing but 
re-echo the sentiment which he learned first from 
the lips of his spiritual counsellor, and then by 
an uncommonly deep and protracted experience. 
We must, therefore, not fail to notice, that in 
these very suggestions of Staupitz lie the true 
seeds of the Reformation. In proof of the above 
assertion, we will adduce but one passage. We 
will take it from the same letter to Spalatin just 
mentioned. "You have thus far been but a 
slender sinner ; you reproach yourself with very 
trifling sins. Come and join yourself to us, real, 
great and daring sinners, that you may not make 
Christ of no account to us, who is a deliverer not 
from pretending and trifling sins, but from true, 
great, nay, the greatest of sins. Let me put you 
in mind of my own case, when I was tempted and 
tried like as you now are, albeit I am now strong 
in Christ. Believe the Scripture, that Christ is 
come to destroy the works of the devil, of which 
this despondency is one." This joyful and confi- 



120 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



dent view of the infinite fulness of a Saviour's 
love, instead of that terrifying conception of him 
as a merciless judge and executioner, which he 
had hitherto entertained, constitutes the radical 
difference between the Catholic and the Protest- 
ant religion, as a matter of experience. In the 
one, good works are sought as a recommendation 
to Christ, and these, though imperfect, are gra- 
ciously accepted and rewarded, so that faith itself 
is nothing but a work of righteousness, beginning 
in the intellect and the outward act, and gradu- 
ally becoming spiritual; in the other, Christ meets 
the sinner as a sinner, and takes the load himself, 
shows his adaptedness to just such cases ; gives, 
of his own accord, a penitent and believing heart, 
and forgives gratuitously, and unites the soul to 
himself by faith, which is justifying only by virtue 
of this union. 

It was a long time before Luther's mind was 
clear on this subject. The theory of the scho- 
lastic divines and the practice of the church had 
grown up with him. The new tendency, which 
began to make its appearance, was suppressed 
and hemmed in on every side. No expression 
in the Bible was more terrific to him than that 
of "the righteousness of God." The Fathers had 
explained it as that attribute of justice by which 
God executes judgment. " This interpretation," 
says Luther, " caused me distress and terror when 
I was a young theologian. For when I heard God 
called righteous, I ran back in my thoughts to 
that interpretation which had become fixed and 
rooted in me by long habit. ... So powerful and 



\ 



M. 21-25.] CONSECRATION AS PRIEST. 121 

pestilent a thing is false and corrupt doctrine, 
when the heart has been polluted with it from 
youth up." Staupitz and an aged confessor, 
whose name is not given, taught him that " the 
righteousness of God," in Paul's epistles, had a 
very different meaning, namely, that righteous- 
ness which becomes the sinner's the moment he 
believes in Christ. Referring to this new ex- 
planation, he said : " Then I came to understand 
the matter, and learned to distinguish between 
the righteousness of the law and the righteous- 
ness of the gospel." " When I began," says he 
again, " to meditate more diligently upon the 
words ' righteous,' and 'righteousness of God/ 
which once made me fear when I heard them : 
and when I considered the passage in the second 
chapter of Habakkuk, 6 The just shall live by 
faith,' and began to learn that the righteousness 
which is acceptable to God is revealed without 
the deeds of the law, from that very time how 
my feelings were changed ! — and I said to myself, 
if we are made righteous by faith ; if the right- 
eousness which availeth before God is saving to 
all who believe therein, then such declarations 
ought not to alarm the poor sinner and his timid 
conscience, but rather be to them a consolation." 
In another place he says, I had the greatest 
longing to understand rightly the Epistle of Paul 
to the Romans, but was always stopped by the 
word c righteousness,' in the 1st chapter and 19th 
verse, where Paul says, * the righteousness of 
God is revealed in the gospel.' I felt very angry 
at the term, 4 the righteousness of God ;' for, after 

li 



122 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[100o-lo08. 



the manner of all the teachers, I was taught to 
understand it, in a philosophic sense, of that 
righteousness by which God is just and punish- 
eth the guilty. Though I had lived without re- 
proach, I felt myself a great sinner before God, 
and was of a very quick conscience, and had not 
confidence in a reconciliation with God, to be pro- 
duced by any work of satisfaction or merit of my 
own. For this cause I had in me no love of a 
righteous and angry God, but secretly hated him, 
and thought within myself, Is it not enough that 
God hath condemned us. to everlasting death by 
Adam's sin, and that we must suffer so much 
trouble and misery in this life ? Over and above 
the terror and threatening of the law, must he 
needs increase, by the gospel, our misery and 
anguish ; and, by the preaching of the same, 
thunder against us his justice and fierce wrath ? 
My confused conscience oft-times did cast me into 
fits of anger, and I sought, day and night, to make 
out the meaning of Paul ; and, at last, I came 
to apprehend it thus : Through the gospel is re- 
vealed the righteousness which availeth with God, 
a righteousness by which God, in his mercy and 
compassion, justifieth us, as it is written, 6 The 
just shall live by faith.' Straightway I felt as 
if I were born anew ; it was as if I had found 
the door of Paradise thrown wide open. Now J 
saw the Scriptures in altogether a new light, ran 
through their whole contents, as far as my me- 
mory would serve, and compared them, and found 
that the righteousness was the more surely that 
by which he makes us righteous, because every 



Si. 21-25.] 



CONSECRATION AS PRIEST. 



123 



thing agreed thereunto so well. . . . The expres- 
sion, ' the righteousness of God,' which I so 
much hated before, became now dear and pre- 
cious, my darling and most comforting word ; 
and that passage of Paul was to me the true 
door of Paradise." 

This long passage is one of the most interesting 
to be found in all Luther's writings. Though we 
are rarely able to state positively the moment of 
one's conversion, we may confidently affirm that 
this paragraph refers us distinctly to the time 
when the scales fell from Luther's eyes, and when 
he broke through that complicated and strong 
net-work of papal error which had hitherto held 
him captive. From this time Luther is a new 
man. He had a footing of his own, and felt the 
strength of his foundation. Although he had 
almost every thing to learn in respect to this new 
land of promise, he knew that he was in it. 

Again, we learn to a certainty here, that Luther's 
own mind laboured long and hard upon this point. 
Xo thing can be more erroneous than the impres- 
sion received by many from the meagre accounts 
commonly given of this struggle, that a few short 
and simple words of Staupitz speedily set him 
right. The process was very protracted and com- 
plicated, and the fierce contention between two 
opposite elements was carried on long, and ex- 
tended through all the domain of monasticism, 
its habits and usages, its Scripture interpreta- 
tions, its dialectics, and the whole mass of its 
cumbrous theology. A gigantic effort of intellect 
was requisite in order that Luther should feel his 



124 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1505-1508. 



way out, in opposition to all the scholastic and 
monastic influences, not only without the aid of 
the original Scriptures, but with a version (the 
Vulgate) in which the key-word to this doctrine 
of justification was rendered by jiistitia, justice, 
which, with its false glosses, greatly increased the 
difficulty. 

But we should err, if we were to dilute this 
great change down to a mere intellectual process. 
Luther himself viewed it very differently, and 
always represented it as a spiritual transforma- 
tion, effected by the grace of God. He remarks 
on this subject, " Staupitz assisted me, or rather 
God through him. ... I lay wretchedly entangled 
in the papal net. ... I must have perished in the 
den of murderers, if God had not delivered me. 
. . . His grace transformed me, and kept me from 
going with the enemies of the gospel, and from 
joining them now in shedding innocent blood." 
Who can doubt that he spoke from his own expe- 
rience, when he said, " As soon as you receive the 
knowledge of Christ with sure faith, all anger, 
fear and trembling vanish in the twinkling of an 
eye, and nothing but pure compassion is seen in 
God ! Such knowledge quickeneth the heart and 
maketh it joyful and assured that God is not 
angry with us, but tenderly loveth us." 

The remainder of the time that Luther spent in 
Erfurt, that is, the latter part of his third year in 
the cloister, and the little of the fourth that was 
passed there before going to Wittenberg, was em- 
ployed in the study of the Christian Fathers, and 
especially the writings of Augustine, in connec- 



JE. 22-25.] CONSECRATION AS PK1EST. 125 

tion with the Scriptures and the doctrine of justi- 
fication. That it is a mistake to place the study 
of Augustine and others of the church Fathers, 
except the casual reading of them, at an earlier 
period, is evident from the account given by 
Melancthon, who says it took place after he had 
ascertained the doctrine of justification by faith. 
With the works of Augustine he became very 
familiar, and afterward he edited one of his trea- 
tises, to be used as a text-book in the Univer- 
sity of Wittenberg. In the preface he remarks, 
"I can safely affirm, from my own experience, 
that next to the Holy Scriptures there is no 
writer of the church who can be compared with 
Augustine in Christian learning." Another fa- 
vourite author with Luther at this time was 
Gerson, with whose moral writings he was par- 
ticularly pleased, "because he alone, of all the 
writers of the church, treated of spiritual trials 
and temptations." 



126 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1508. 



CHAPTER IV. 

LUTHER AS PROFESSOR IN WITTENBERG, TILL THE BEGIN- 
NING OF THE REFORMATION IN 1517. 

Section I. — Luther's Removal to Wittenberg. 

E now come to 
the close of an im- 
portant period of 
Luther's life. Du- 
ring a residence 
of a little more 
than seven years 
in Erfurt, from 
July 17, 1501, to 
the autumn of 
1508, in which he 
had passed from youth to the state of manhood, 
both his intellectual and religious character under- 
went a great transformation. Four years of time, 
devoted with signal success to secular learning in 
the university; and nearly three and a half to 
experimental religion and to theology in the mo- 
nastery, changed the boy, who knew nothing of 
learning beyond the catechism and Latin gram- 
mar, and nothing of religion beyond a gloomy 
apprehension of it and a crude mass of super- 
stitions, into a mature scholar and theologian, to 
whom the young University of Wittenberg looked 
as to one likely to increase its usefulness and its 




JE. 25.] 



WITTENBERG. 



127 



fame. The appointment was very peculiar. Such 
was his modesty, and his reluctance to appearing 
abroad in any public capacity, that Staupitz, as 
provincial of the order, peremptorily required him 
to repair to the monastery at Wittenberg, and to 
lecture there on philosophy. The conscientious 
monk, who had learned nothing more perfectly 
than he had the duty of obedience, and who, no 
doubt, would have resisted any entreaty, and de- 
clined any appointment, hastened to comply with 
the order, not waiting even to take leave of his 
friends, and hardly providing himself with a 
change of apparel. Inasmuch as this event opens 
a new period in his life, in which an extraordinary 
development of character was wrought, and a 
transition made from the passive submission of 
the monk to the activity and control of one born 
to rule, it becomes necessary, at this point, to 
pause and take a survey of the new theatre of 
action upon which he was now entering, and of 
the widely different relations which he was hence- 
forth to sustain. 

WITTENBERG. 

Probably Luther never saw this place till he 
went to take his station there for life. And what 
a station was that ! and how did he fill it ! Pass- 
ing beyond Weimar, Naumburg and Leipsic, and 
directing his course toward Diiben, which is about 
midway between Leipsic and Wittenberg, he would 
see spread out before him a rich arable tract of 
country, dotted with countless small villages. Only 
Eilenburg on the right, and Delitsch on the left, 



128 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[150*. 



several miles distant, rise to the dignity of towns. 
Near Diiben, pleasant woodland and fine meadows 
begin to appear, and extend far in both direc- 
tions along the banks of the Mulde. A mile 
beyond that town, Luther, of course, entered the 
Diiben Heath, a desolate, sandy region, seven or 
eight miles in extent, covered with stunted trees, 
where an equally stunted race of wood-cutters, 
colliers and manufacturers of wooden-ware, led a 
boorish life. Near the entrance of the heath is a 
rock, called Dr. Luther's Rock, with the letters 
D. M. L. inscribed upon it, because he is said to 
have made a pause here once when on a journey, 
and to have taken a repast upon it. To the right 
of the heath, near the Elbe, is Schmiedeberg, 
whither the university was sometimes temporarily 
removed in seasons of peril. Beyond the river is 
the castle of Lichtenberg, where Luther held an 
anxious interview with Spalatin, in 1518, to de- 
termine whether he should retire from Wittenberg 
or not. North of this are Annaburg, the occa- 
sional residence of the electors, and the Cloister 
Lochau, so often mentioned by Luther. Directly 
on his route lay Kemberg, which was also con- 
nected variously with the university. The last 
place he passed through was Prata, whose dis- 
tance from Wittenberg, he once said, would give 
an idea of the width of the Po. To the left lay 
Sagrena, Carls tadt's resort, when he retired from 
the university, and lived as a peasant. Beyond 
this were seen the Elbe and the white sand hills 
which gave to Wittenberg its name. The town 
itself, containing then three hundred and fifty-six 



M. 25.] 



WITTENBERG. 



129 



houses and about two thousand inhabitants, lay 
before him on the north side of the Elbe, and two 
hundred rods distant from it, in a long oval form, 
with the electoral church and palace at the west- 
ern extremity, the city church in the centre, and 
the Augusteum or university toward the Elster 
gate, at the eastern extremity. Though Witten- 
berg was the capital of the old electorate, its 
appearance was far from being splendid. On the 
north side are seen plains broken by sand-hills and 
copses of wood ; on the south, a low flat heath, 
behind which flowed the broad Elbe, fringed here 
and there with w r illow and oak shrubs. Many 
wretched hamlets were seen in the distance, and 
the city itself, if Ave except the public buildings, 
was but little more than a cluster of mean dwell- 
ings. The people were warlike, but so sensual 
that it was thought necessary to limit their con- 
vivialities by law. At betrothals, for example, 
nothing was allowed to be given to the guests, 
except cakes, bread, cheese, fruit and beer. The 
last article so abounded at Wittenberg, that it was 
said, " The cuckoo could be heard there in winter 
evenings ;" speaking, of course, through the throats 
of the bottles. There were one hundred and 
seventy-two breweries in the city in 1513. Among 
the expenditures of the city, recorded in the 
treasurer's books, for the ten years preceding Lu- 
ther's arrival, are moneys paid for fire-arms; for 
race-grounds, where oxen were the prize won in 
the race ; for paintings and masks used in plays ; 
for garments, masks, rings, scaffolding, linen, 
dresses for Satan and his companions; for Judas 



130 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1538. 



and the two thieves, all to be used in the amuse- 
ments of Passion-week. Luther rarely speaks in 
praise of the inhabitants in and about Wittenberg. 
At one time, he says, " The Saxons are neither 
agreeable nor civil;" at another time, " The Witten- 
bergers trouble themselves neither about honour, 
courtesy, nor religion ; they do not send their sons 
to school, though so many come here from abroad." 
There seems to have been an almost entire desti- 
tution of lower schools here at that time, and 
there was no Latin school till 1519. The first 
press at Wittenberg, for printing learned works, 
that is, in the Latin language with the Roman 
type, was established in the Augustinian cloister, 
the year after Luther became an inmate there; 
and a German press had existed there only five 
years before his arrival. 

What has just been said will find a sufficient 
explanation in the fact that Wittenberg was situ- 
ated on the north-eastern verge of German civili- 
zation, being a border-town, between the Wends 
on the east and the Saxons on the west, and being 
as yet but feebly influenced by the refinements 
of learning, which came from the south and the 
west, from Italy and France. Cologne, Heidel- 
berg and Erfurt were the principal seats of 
learning, until Wittenberg, ten years from this 
time, came to eclipse them all, and to fix the 
source and centre of illumination far to the 
north. 



M. 25.] 



WITTENBERG. 



131 



THE UNIVERSITY. 

Wittenberg University had been in exist- 
ence six years when Luther was appointed pro- 
fessor. Until 1507, it was supported chiefly from 
the funds of the Elector Frederic, who now incor- 
porated with it the collegiate church, with all its 
sources of income, and the provostships of Kem- 
berg and Cloclen, the parish of Orlamtinde, &c, 
the canons of the former becoming lecturers with- 
out cost or trouble, and the incumbents of the 
latter providing vicars in their churches, and re- 
moving to the university, where they lived upon 
their incomes. The university was organized after 
the model of Tubingen, and bore resemblance to 
the University of Erfurt. All these were less 
under ecclesiastical control than the Universities 
of Louvain, Cologne, Ingoldstadt and Leipsic. 
The rector, who must be unmarried, and maintain 
his dignity by studied seclusion, and appear in 
public only in great pomp, — assisted by three 
reformers, whose duty it was to superintend the 
instruction, and the cleans of the four faculties, 
constituted the Academic Senate. The univer- 
sity, contrary to the usual custom, was under the 
protection of the elector, and not of the pope, or 
a cardinal, or an archbishop, a circumstance which 
greatly favoured the Reformation. None, there- 
fore, but the elector could control the university 
from without, and none but the rector and his 
assistants, the reformers, could do it from within. 
These, however, had enough to do. In the very 



132 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1503. 



year that Luther came there, the students had so 
insulted some of the court of the Bishop of Bran- 
denburg, that he put the whole city under the in- 
terdict, which was removed only on the payment 
of two thousand gulden. The year before, when 
Scheurl, a very energetic man, was rector, he 
checked the prevailing vice of intoxication among 
the students, and prohibited the practice of going 
armed with gun, sword and knife. Still, in 1512, 
another rector was assassinated by an expelled 
student; and Melancthon once barely escaped 
with his life. 

Paul and Augustine were the patron saints of 
the theological faculty, a clear intimation on the 
part of Staupitz, the organizer and first dean of 
this faculty, that the theological system which he 
had always taught was to be favoured here. Thus 
a place was from the beginning prepared for Lu- 
ther, who had studied Paul most of all the sacred 
writers, and Augustine most of all the ecclesias- 
tical. The whole university was to observe the 
festivals of the saints of each faculty. The facul- 
ties were the theological, in which there were four 
professors : the law, in which there were five : the 
medical, in which there were three : and the phi- 
losophical, including science and literature, in 
which there were ten. In the theological faculty 
were Staupitz, Pollich, (one of the founders of 
the university,) Truttvetter, Luther's teacher in 
Erfurt, and Henning. Amsdorf and Caiistadt 
were teachers of the scholastic philosophy. There 
was as yet no teacher in Greek, Hebrew, or mathe- 
matics. The number of students who entered 



M. 25.] 



WITTENBERG. 



133 



that year (1508) was one hundred and seventy- 
nine, and the whole number in the university 
could not have been more than four or five hun- 
dred, though it amounted in a few r } r ears to two 
thousand. As Luther passed rapidly through all 
the degrees conferred in theology, it becomes ne- 
cessary to explain their nature. The first was 
that of biblicus, though the candidate ordinarily 
knew little of the Bible beyond a few papal 
glosses on favourite proof-texts : the second w T as 
that of senteniiarius, who could lecture on the first 
two books of the Sentences of Peter Lombardus : 
the third was that of formatus, who could lecture 
on the last two books of the same author: the 
fourth was that of licentiatus, one licensed to teach 
theology in general : the fifth was that of doctor 
of divinity. 

THE CHURCHES AND ECCLESIASTICAL RELATIONS OF 
WITTENBERG. 

Wittenberg belonged to the diocese of Branden- 
burg, of which Scultet was bishop, subject to the 
Archbishop of Magdeburg, who at that time and 
till 1513 was Ernest, brother of the Elector Frede- 
ric. He was succeeded by Albert, of the Branden- 
burg family, who retained the see of Magdeburg 
after he became Archbishop of Mainz, and, of 
course, primate of Germany. These, next after 
Staupitz, were Luther's ecclesiastical superiors. 

The Electoral Church (called also the Church 
of Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins, or AH 
Saints') gave, on account of its innumerable relics 
and unprecedented indulgences, a very supersti- 

12 



134 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1008. 



tious air to the religious character of Wittenberg'. 
In 1353, the elector, who had been rewarded for 
his faithful services to the King of France by a 
thorn from the crown worn by Christ, erected a 
chapel for the relic, and appointed seven chap- 
lains. This grew by degrees into an important 
collegiate church, being exempted from the bishop's 
jurisdiction, and exercising the right of patron- 
age over the other churches of the city. When 
vacancies occurred in the chapter, the canons, the 
number of whom were increased to eighty, were 
presented by the elector. All who worshipped 
here had forty days' indulgence. Every week 
occurred the anniversary of some saint, which 
was announced every Sunda} r , together with the 
relics to be shown. The electoral church, which 
occupied the place of that old chapel, was erected 
by the Elector Frederic, and finished nine years 
previous to Luther's removal to this place. Re- 
lics were now collected from every quarter, at 
great expense, the pope and foreign ecclesiastics 
aiding those who were engaged in the work. 
They were divided into eight classes, and shown 
in as many courses to superstitious worshippers. 
The number of the relics amounted to five thou- 
sand and five, which were enclosed in cases of 
wood, stone, glass, silver and gold, embossed with 
pearls. Most of them belonged to holy virgins, 
widows, confessors, martyrs, apostles and pro- 
phets ; but the eighth class, containing three hun- 
dred and thirty-one, related to Christ, such as 
garments, teeth, hair in abundance, relics of the 
children slain by Herod, milk from the holy Vir- 



M. 25.] 



FREDERIC THE WISE. 



135 



gin, thread spun by her, straw from the manger 
in Bethlehem, and fragments from the cross and 
from Mount Sinai ! Every person, to whom all 
these and another collection of seventeen hun- 
dred relics should be shown, was entitled to four- 
teen hundred and forty-three years of indulgence ! 
equalled by no other place in Christendom except 
Assisi, the native place of St. Franciscus. In 
this single church, 9901 masses were said, and 
-35,570 pounds of wax consumed every year ! 
One of the first books printed at Wittenberg after 
Luther arrived there, was a "Description of the 
Venerable Relics," with one hundred and nine- 
teen wood-cuts. This was the church where Lu- 
ther sometimes preached, where the higher de- 
grees were conferred, and on whose doors the 
ninety-five theses were posted up. The city or 
parish church, where most of Luther's sermons 
were delivered, and of which Pontanus and Bu- 
genhagen were successive pastors, was in another 
part of the town. 

FREDERIC THE WISE BORN 1463 DIED 1525. 

The reigning Saxon family was divided into 
two branches, the Albertine and the Ernestine. 
From Albert, (whose ordinary residence was 
Dresden,) descended Duke George, Luther's bit- 
ter enemy, and to him succeeded first Henry 
and then Maurice. To Ernest, who resided 
sometimes at Torgau and sometimes at Witten- 
berg, were born four distinguished sons, the 
Elector Frederic the Wise, who in his birth 
preceded Luther twenty years, and in his death 



136 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1508. 



twenty-one; Albert, who at the age of eighteen 
was Archbishop of Mainz, in 1482, but died in 
the same year; Ernest, who, after being Admi- 
nistrator of Magdeburg for several years, was 
archbishop from 1489 to 1513; and John the 
Constant, now associated with Frederic in the 
government, and in 1525 his successor. 

If we bear in mind that the Archbishops of 
Magdeburg and Mainz had large territories under 
their civil government, and actually had more of 
the character of princes than of ecclesiastics, we 
shall not fail to perceive the great extent of the 
Saxon dominion at the time that the family oc- 
cupied all the places above named. Hence the 
jealousy between that house and the house of 
Brandenburg, when Albert, belonging to the lat- 
ter, was at the same time Archbishop both in 
Magdeburg and in Mainz. This explains the 
circumstance that Tetzel, Albert's agent in sell- 
ing indulgences, was coolly received in Saxony, 
but was favourably received in all the territories 
of the Brandenburg family. 

Frederic, like all his brothers, was well edu- 
cated, and could write and speak the Latin and 
French, besides the German. In the absence of 
the Emperor Maximilian, in 1507, he adminis- 
tered the affairs of the empire in the character 
of vicar. He had clone the same before, and was 
called to do it once again at the important crisis 
in respect to the Reformation, during the interval 
between the death of Maximilian and the election 
of Charles V. in 1519. He attended thirty diets 
in all, in which ho took frequently the most im- 



JE. 25.] 



FREDERIC THE WISE. 



137 



portant, and never a subordinate part. He was, 
for those times, an admirable ruler in his own 
territories; increasing steadily the power of the 
electorate, and commanding universal respect at 
home and abroad. 

Though surnamed the Wise, he was rather vir- 
tuous and prudent than great. If he did not 
regard the interests of Saxony too much, he re- 
garded those of Germany too little. He undoubt- 
edly contributed his share toward weakening and 
dividing the empire, by uniting with other elect- 
ors and princes in raising the states to sove- 
reignty and independence. His patriotism was 
narrower than that of Ulrich von Hutten, Francis 
von Sickingen, or even Philip of Hesse. 

As he was a liberal patron of letters, those 
who have written his history were so much in- 
debted to him that their praises are to be re- 
ceived with some little caution. He was a great 
lover of peace ; and it is said, that during his 
reign blood never flowed in his dominions. His 
private virtue was not quite spotless. Luther 
complains that intoxication was too much in- 
dulged in at his court ; that taxes were some- 
times oppressive ; and that the administration of 
justice and of other public affairs was often too 
long delayed. But he was remarkably upright 
and firm. When the imperial throne became va- 
cant, he refused all presents offered him as elector 
by the competitors ; declined the imperial crown 
when offered to him; and, though he favoured the 
election of Charles, he was active in limiting his 
authority by a capitulation to be previously signed 

12* 



138 LIFE OF LUTHER. [1508. 

His cautious and hesitating course toward Lu- 
ther and the Reformation was undoubtedly fa- 
vourable ; inasmuch as it left the work to depend 
on spiritual resources, and thereby kept it from 
assuming the character of a political revolu- 
tion. He was originally a superstitious but not 
bigoted papist. He expended no less than two 
hundred thousand gulden on his favourite colle- 
giate church and its relics. He made a pilgrim- 
age to Jerusalem, accompanied by the painter 
Cranach and others. Of course there could, at 
first, be but little sympathy between him and 
Luther. 

Section II. — Luther's early Labours in Wittenberg. 

We are now prepared to follow Luther in the 
new scene of his labours. The precise time of 
his journey thither is not known, but, as we find 
his name entered as teacher in the winter seme- 
ster, or half-year term, of 1508-1509, we may 
infer that he was probably on the ground by 
November, to commence the term. Luther, who 
had so long resided in the large and beautiful city 
of Erfurt, and, before that, in Eisenach and Mag- 
deburg, sensibly felt the change when he came to 
a little, unattractive town, consisting mostly of a 
cluster of low houses, with mud walls and thatched 
roofs. "I wondered,'' said he, "that a university 
should be placed here." As monk, he found his 
new home in the Augustinian cloister, which the 
elector was then rebuilding. How little did Fre- 
deric, while preparing that apartment, which is 



JE. 25.] 



EARLY LABOURS IN WITTENBERG. 



139 



still preserved, or brother Martin, when taking 
up his residence there, which he never afterward 
changed, think that in this obscure place should 
be forged the weapons, and from it the missiles be 
showered forth which, in connection with other 
agencies, should put to flight the ranks of the 
enemy, and change the destinies of nearly all the 
north of Europe ! Parts of the building it was 
necessary to take down during Luther's lifetime, 
at which it was natural that he should feel sad. 
"If I should live another year," he remarked, 
with emotion, " I must behold the removal of my 
poor little room, from whence I have stormed the 
pope, for which cause it deserves to stand for 
ever." 

He commenced his labours by lecturing on the 
dialectics and physics of Aristotle, without salary 
or tuition fees. It is remarkable that he never 
received any thing from students for his labours, 
nor from booksellers for his writings.* After he 
laid aside the cowl, the elector gave him an aUW- 
ance of two hundred gulden a year. 

From the change through which Luther's mind 
had recently passed, and from the fresh interest 
he now took in the study of the Bible and of 
theology, we might infer that the Aristotelian 
philosophy would have few attractions for him. 
It was indeed with reluctance that he turned 
away from his favourite studies, and laid out 

* The publishers of his works offered him four huudred florins 
a year, if he would give them his manuscripts ; but he refused 
"to make merchandise of the gifts with which God had endowed 
him." 



140 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1-309. 



all his strength in preparing for his philosophi- 
cal lectures. So entirely was he obliged to sur- 
render himself to his new occupation, that he 
could not find time to write to his most intimate 
friends. A letter which he wrote to his old ac- 
quaintance, Braun, in Eisenach, a week after he 
was transferred to the department of theology, 
unbosoms to us his feelings during the first few 
months of his residence at Wittenberg. " That 
I came off," he writes, March 17, 1509, "with- 
out saying a word unto you, you must not mar- 
vel. For so sudden was my departure that my 
choicest friends there hardly knew it. I would 
fain have written unto } r ou, but could not then 
for lack of time, and could only but grieve that 
I was constrained to fly away in such haste, with- 
out bidding you farewell. But now, at God's 
command, or by his permission, I am here in 
Wittenberg. Would you know my state and 
condition, I would say it is, by God's favour, 
very good, saving that I must force myself unto 
my studies, especially philosophy, before which 
I preferred theology from the beginning. I mean 
that theology which seeketh for the inside of the 
nut, for the kernel of the wheat beneath the 
husk, for the* marrow within the bone. But God 
is God, and man often, nay, always, erreth in his 
judgment, This is our God, and he shall guide 
us in his loving-kindness for ever." 

The circumstance that within about four months 
he became lecturer, or elementary teacher, in theo- 
logy, renders it highly probable that Staupitz, and 
perhaps himself, considered his first appointment 



M. 25.] EARLY LABOURS IN WITTENBERG. Ml 

as merely preparatory to the second. At any 
rate, the ninth of March was a joyful clay to 
him. In the university book, where his name is 
registered, we find the amusing remark : " On the 
ninth of March, master (t. e. A. M.) Martin w T as 
admitted to the Bible, (i. e. made bibliciis,) but, 
being called away to Erfurt, hath not unto this 
time paid his fee." In the margin is added, in 
Luther's own hand, " And never will. I was 
then poor, and under the rule of monastic obedi- 
ence, and had nothing to give. Let Erfurt pay." 

The biblical bachelors knew nothing of the ori- 
ginal languages of the Bible, nor did they in any 
respect resemble the modern professors of bibli- 
cal literature. They merely studied the inter- 
pretations, or select passages of Scripture, given 
by the fathers, the popes and the councils. The 
study was but a superficial and hasty prepara- 
tion for reading the books of sentences. Accord- 
ing to the law r s of the Wittenberg University, the 
biblical teacher must promise to teach the Scrip- 
tures one year, or, if he was a monk, half a year. 
In the programme of lectures for the year 1507, 
the only one extant of that period, no lecturer 
of this kind is mentioned, and but little account 
was generally made of that office. Though Lu- 
ther could not now read the Scriptures in the 
original languages, nor the Greek Fathers except 
through Latin translations, his present views of 
theology and his love of the Bible led him to 
enter upon his official duties with an unprece- 
dented earnestness and zeal. To this and the 
following period he refers in a work published 



142 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1509. 



in 1539, in which, speaking of the assurance and 
yet the ignorance of his opponents, he says, " I 
have also read the Fathers, and that, too, before 
. I set myself in such stiff opposition to the pope. 
I read them, too, with much more diligence than 
they have done who now bring them arrogantly 
and vauntingly against me. For I know that 
not one of them hath ever undertaken to lecture 
in the schools on a single book of the Bible, and 
make use of the writings of the Fathers as helps, 
as I have done. Let them take up a book of the 
Bible, and look for the glosses to be found in the 
Fathers, and it then will be with them as it was 
with me when I took up the Epistle to the He- 
brews, with the aid of Chrysostom's commen- 
tary; Titus and Galatians, with the aid of Je- 
rome ; Genesis, with the help of Ambrose and 
Augustine ; and the Psalms with all the helps 
that could be found ; and so of other books." 

The impression, therefore, which his biblical 
lectures at first made, must have depended more 
on his having thrown his heart into it, and ex- 
hibited boldly and clearly some long forgotten 
doctrinal truths, than upon his mastery of bibli- 
cal studies. 

HIS RELUCTANCE TO PREACH. 

The monastic shyness and timidity which he 
had before manifested adhered to him still. Being 
called upon about this time, probably in the sum- 
mer of 1509, by Staupitz to preach, he mani- 
fested extreme reluctance. " It is no little 
matter," said he, " to appear in place of God be- 



SE. 25.] 



RELUCTANCE TO PREACH. 



143 



fore the people, and to preach to them." As 
they were one day sitting in the cloister-garden, 
refreshing themselves in the shade of a certain 
pear-tree, which was a place of frequent resort, 
the case was long argued between them, and Lu- 
ther at length yielded. His own account of the 
interview is thus given in the Table-Talk: "I 
had fifteen arguments with which I purposed, 
under this pear-tree, to refuse my vocation ; but 
they could nothing avail. At the last I said, 
' Dr. Staupitz, you will be the death of me, for I 
cannot live under it three months.' 'Very well, 
in God's name, go on ! Our Lord God hath 
many great things to do : he hath need of wise 
folks in heaven, too.' " He was, at the time he 
made this remark, sitting in the same place with 
his friend Antony Lauterbach, who was telling 
how much difficulty, trial and weakness, he ex- 
perienced in preaching. " My dear sir," said 
Luther, " it hath gone even so with me. I had 
as great a dread and terror of the pulpit as you 
have ; yet was I compelled to go right onward. 
I was constrained to preach, and to make a begin- 
ning in the refectory with the brethren. Oh, 
what a horror I had of the pulpit !" 

The spot where Luther first preached is thus 
described by Myconius : " In the new Augustinian 
cloister at Wittenberg, the foundations of a chapel 
had indeed been laid, but the walls were raised no 
higher than to a level with the ground. Within 
them was yet standing a little old wooden chapel, 
about thirty feet long and twenty wide, the tim- 
bers thereof being laid in mortar, very much lean- 



144 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1509. 



ing, and propped up on all sides. In it was a 
little half-gallery, old and smoky, in which twenty 
men might perhaps stand. By the wall on the 
south side was to be seen a pulpit of old rough- 
hewn planks, raised about an ell and a half from 
the floor. ... In this poor little chapel did 
God cause his holy gospel and his dear child 
Jesus to be born anew. It was no minster or 
great cathedral, though there were many thou- 
sands of them, that God chose for this purpose. 
But soon this chapel was too strait, and Luther 
was called to preach in the parish church." 

How Luther overcame his timidity in preaching, 
he himself informs us. " When a preacher for the 
first time goeth into the pulpit, no one would be- 
lieve how fearful he is, he seeth so many heads 
before him. When I go up into the pulpit, I do 
not look upon anyone. I think them to be only so 
many blocks before me, and I speak out the words 
of my God." 

Creuziger once said to Melancthon, "I do not 
like to see you at my lectures." "Nor do I," said 
Luther, " at mine, or at my pulpit discourses ; but 
I bring the cross right before me, think Melanc- 
thon, Jonas, Pomeranus, &c, are not present, and 
count no one to be wiser in the pulpit than my- 
self." Of his character as preacher, we shall 
speak in another place. 



M 20.] 



JOURNEY TO ROME. 



145 



Section III. — Journey to Rome. 

Luther's visit to Rome was of such consequence 
to him, that it demands our special attention. He 
travelled on foot with a brother, whose name is not 
mentioned, and, according to general usage, passed 
the nights in the various convents of his order that 
lay in his route. Travelling as a pilgrim to the 
holy apostolical see, with little intercourse, except 
with sequestered monks, he would not be likely 
to make all the observations upon the countries 
through which he passed, and their inhabitants, 
which would be expected of the curious traveller. 

The first resting-place, of which any account is 
preserved, on this journey, was at Heidelberg, 
whither he was accompanied by Staupitz. The 
chronicle of that city speaks of his visiting it "in 
1510, when he was sent by the convent of the 
Augustinians to Rome." While there, he preached, 
and engaged, as was usual, with the learned monks, 
in public disputations. His journey now took a 
south-easterly direction through Suabia into Ba- 
varia. Tradition mentions Munich as one of the 
places at which he called as he proceeded on his 
way. The last point mentioned in Germany is 
Fiissen, at the Tyrol pass, and the first in Italy 
is Milan. He consequently took a south-westerly 
direction in crossing the Alps, and passed near to 
Lake Como. 

Some of his remarks on the character of the 
people and of the countries which fell under his 
observation are not a little amusing. We will 

13 



146 



LIFE OF LUTHER, 



[1510. 



quote his own words. "Were I to travel much, 
I would go nowhere of a readier will than into 
Suabia and Bavaria ; for there the people are kind- 
hearted and hospitable, and are forward to treat 
strangers and pilgrims charitably, and give them 
full their money's worth." "When, in 1510, I 
was journeying to Rome through Milan, I per- 
ceived that a different mass-service was used 
there, and was told I could not join in the cele- 
bration, because they were Ambrosians." He 
speaks of Lombardy, as "a goodly and pleasant 
country," as "a valley a hundred miles wide, on 
both sides of the Po, (which is as wide as from 
Wittenberg to Prata,) extending from the Alps to 
the Apennines." He adds, "In Lombardy, on the 
Po, is a very rich Benedictine cloister, with a 
yearly income of thirty-six thousand florins. Of 
eating and feasting there is no lack, for that 
twelve thousand florins are consumed upon guests, 
and as large a sum upon building. The residue 
goeth to the convent and the brethren. I was in 
that cloister, and was received and treated with 
honour." The air of Italy was so pestilential that 
it was necessary to exclude it entirely, during the 
night, by closing the windows. " That," said he, 
"did I and my brother experience. When we 
were in Italy, (near Padua,) on our way to Rome, 
we slept at one time till six in the morning with our 
windows open, and when we awoke, we found our 
heads so stopped with catarrh, and so heavy and 
void of sense, that we could travel that day but 
only five miles." At Bologna, he was taken so 
ill that he despaired of recovery. His mind re- 



JE. 26.] 



IN ROME. 



147 



verted in its anxiety to the cardinal doctrine of 
his newly adopted creed, the only point on which 
a clear light had begun to shine, and he drew 
consolation from those words which three years 
before gave new life to his soul, " The just shall 
live by faith." During all his journey, this me- 
morable passage would ever and anon occur to his 
memory. He speaks with admiration of the 
Foundling and other excellent hospitals which he 
saw at Florence, and gives evident signs of satis- 
faction at the honourable mention of the name of 
the Emperor Frederic, of Germany, whose sayings 
were still preserved among the people. At length 
he came in sight of Rome, whereupon, with the 
feelings of a pilgrim who has reached the hal- 
lowed spot of his most earnest longings, he fell 
prostrate to the ground, and raised his hands, and 
said, "Hail, sacred Rome, thrice sacred for the 
blood of the martyrs here shed!" 

LUTHER IN ROME. 

Cicero and Julius Caesar would hardly have 
recognised the ecclesiastical city which Luther 
has just greeted, and with scarcely less difficulty 
would he recognise the Rome of the present day. 
Its hills, indeed, are the same, and the same Tiber 
flows there still. But Alaric, Genseric, Ricimer, 
and Totila had been there, and desolation reigned 
on many of the seven hills. Another priesthood 
and a people of another faith were there; and 
instead of the temples of Jupiter Capitolinus, of 
Esculapius and of Apollo, were to be seen St. 
Peter's, the Lateran and Santa Maria Maggiore. 



148 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1510. 



Modern Rome was not yet in full existence. The 
residences of the great were still chiefly within 
the angle made by the curve of the Tiber, in the 
vicinity of the Campus Martius and the Circus. 

Luther entered the Porta del Popolo, its north- 
ern gate. Near it was the Augustinian monastery, 
where he is said to have taken his lodgings and 
to have held mass as soon as he entered the city. 
On his right, across the river, and beyond the 
castle of St. Angelo, was seen the half-finished 
St. Peter's, which had been begun and was now 
carried on by Pope Julius, that lover of war and 
of architecture. It was finished at a later period 
by Leo, who was equally fond of splendour, and 
who in the arts of peace was as heathenish as his 
predecessor was in the arts of war. As one enters 
the gate above mentioned, he finds himself in a 
square from which diverge three long streets, in 
nearly direct lines, the one on the right running 
to the Campus Martius and near to the Pantheon ; 
the one in front passing directly to the old Capitol 
and Forum; the one on the left passing in a south- 
easterly direction across the Quirinal and Yiminal 
hills, leaving the Diocletian Baths to the left, and 
extending to the Santa Maria Maggiore, which, 
with the Lateran, are next in splendour to St. 
Peter's. The Lateran, the proper parish church 
of the pope, and "the mother and head of all the 
churches of the world," is about half as much 
farther, and near the walls of the city. Directly 
south of this, and two miles bej^ond the walls, is 
St. Sebastian's church, built directly over the 
catacombs. West from the latter, near the bank 



JE. 26.] 



IN ROME. 



149 



of the Tiber and a mile below the city, is St, 
Paul's, next in magnitude to St. Peter's. 

This introductory view will enable us to follow 
Luther in his frequent visits to the sacred places 
in Rome, and to perceive the full import of his 
casual observations. Fortunately, a guide-book 
for pilgrims — MirabiUa Romce, the Wonders of 
Rome — had been prepared and was reprinted the 
very year of Luther's pilgrimage. Of the general 
appearance of the city, he remarks, "Rome, as it 
now appeareth, is but a dead carcase compared 
with its ancient splendour. The houses now rest 
on ground as high as the roofs once stood, so deep 
are the ruins. This do we perceive at the banks 
of the Tiber, where the ruins reach perpendicularly 
to the length of two spears, such as are used by 
our troops." "Rome, where the most magnificent 
buildings once stood, was rased to the ground by 
the Goths. On the hill, and the Capitol, stands a 
Franciscan convent." "Rome, as I saw it, is full 
five miles in circumference. The vestiges where 
ancient Rome stood can scarcely be traced. The 
theatre and the Baths of Diocletian are still to be 
seen. . . . The erection of St. Peter's has lasted 
more than thirteen hundred years, (including the 
old building,) and upon it a huge sum of money 
has been expended." " In the Pantheon at Rome, 
now converted into a church, are representations 
in paintings of all the gods. . . . When I was 
there, I saw this church. It had no windows, but 
was one high vault, with an opening above to 
admit the light. It had large marble pillars, 

13* 



150 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1510. 



which could hardly be compassed by two men 
with their arms extended." 

Luther visited Rome as a pilgrim. Twice while 
in Erfurt had he vowed to make a pilgrimage to 
Rome; and he himself affirms that he made the 
journey in consequence of his vows. This state- 
ment does not, however, stand in the way of his 
having other objects to accomplish at the same 
time. Rome was then regarded as second only 
to Jerusalem in sacredness. The soil was sup- 
posed to be hallowed, not only by the graves of 
thousands of martyrs, and many Roman bishops, 
but of the apostles Peter and Paul. Pilgrims 
came in multitudes, sometimes two hundred thou- 
sand at a time, to visit this sacred city. 

" The Wonders of Rome " (the guide-book already 
mentioned) describes the stations, the relics and the 
indulgences, especially those connected with the 
seven principal churches. The Lateral* church 
had power to give as many days of indulgence as 
the drops of rain which would fall in three clays 
and nights. Each chapel belonging to the group 
of the Lateran buildings, each altar and relic, had, 
moreover, its particular number of indulgences. 
Instructions are given how to deliver souls from 
purgatory by means of Pater nosters and Ave 
M arias. When Luther was there paying his de- 
votions, with frantic zeal like the rest of the in- 
fatuated multitude, he regretted, as he says, that 
his father and mother were both living, so desirous 
was he to release their souls from purgatory. He 
afterward alludes to this insane passion with 
bitter scorn and contempt, saying, "How gladly 



M -26.] 



m ROME. 



151 



would 1 then have made my mother happy, but 
was denied the opportunity, and must content my- 
self with a good dried herring !" " Such a foolish 
saint was I, running to all the churches and sepul- 
chres, and believing all the pitiable stories that 
were told me." 

According to the same book, one may obtain 
every clay at the high altar of St. Peter's eighteen 
years' indulgence and eighteen carenas, each carena 
being equal to seven years and forty days' fasting. 
All the past sins of every visitor who comes with 
good intention can be forgiven. He who devoutly 
goes up and down the stairway to St. Peter's, has 
a thousand years' indulgence in respect to penance 
imposed; and seven times as much if he look at 
the handkerchief of St. Veronica, containing the 
likeness of the Saviour. Luther went up those 
stairs on his knees to obtain the large indulgence 
promised; but while he was so doing, a voice like 
thunder seemed to say to him, "The just shall 
live by faith." Xo wonder that his former expe- 
rience should come up like a spectre before him, 
and rebuke his idolatrous worship. His mind 
was then like a field overgrown with briers and 
thorns, in which, however, one good germ had 
taken root, that was soon to produce a great fruit- 
bearing tree — one which should overshadow all 
the rest and take up the strength of the soil. 

In regard to the pretended handkerchief which 
St. Veronica is said to have given to Christ in his 
agony to wipe off his sweat, and upon which, when 
applied to his face, his likeness was miraculously 
impressed. Luther remarks, evidently from per- 



152 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1510. 



sonal observation: "It is nothing but a black 
square board, with a cloth hung before it, and 
before that another, which is raised when the 
Veronica is shown. The poor besotted pilgrim 
can see nothing but a cloth before a black tablet. 
That is what they call seeing the Veronica; and 
with such low falsehoods are connected great de- 
votion and large indulgences." There was never 
such a person as Veronica; and the name was 
unknown till the Middle Ages. It is the corrup- 
tion, as Mabillon and others have shown, of the 
two words vera and icon, a true image, which were 
inscribed beneath paintings of Christ's countenance 
upon cloth. 

Luther, while credulously gazing at such sacred 
relics in St. Peter's church* saw also the heads of 
the apostles Peter and Paul in the court before 
the church. " They boast at Rome of having the 
heads of Peter and Paul, and show them as sacred 
relics, though they are nothing but wooden heads, 
made by a bungling artist. I can boldly affirm, 
according to what I myself have seen and heard 
at Rome, that no one there knows where the 
bodies of St. Paul and Peter lie. . . . The popes 
show every year (on St. Peter and Paul's day) 
to the blind and silly populace two heads of Peter 
and Paul, carved in wood, and would fain make 
them believe that these are the veritable skulls 
of Peter and Paul; and on the altar where these 
heads are preserved, the palliums of the bishops 
are consecrated." 

Of the catacombs. of Rome, which extended all 
along the eastern part of the city and the adja- 



M 20.] 



IN ROME. 



153 



cent country, from the church of St. Sebastian 
or St. Calixtus to that of St. Agnes without the 
walls, Luther speaks more than once. They evi- 
dently filled his imagination, as well they might, 
more completely than any thing else he saw at 
Rome. In early times, great excavations were 
made under the city to furnish stone and sand for 
building. In this complete net-work of subterra- 
nean passages, the Christians secreted themselves 
during the persecutions, buried all their dead 
there for two or three centuries, placing them in 
niches at the sides of the passages ; and built 
small chapels near the bodies of the martyrs, 
where they resorted for prayers and the commu- 
nion service. 

Thus, while pagan Rome was in the light of 
day above, living in splendour and luxury, and 
putting the Christians to death, or driving them 
from the abodes of men, Christian Rome, beneath 
the surface of the earth, "the church in the ca- 
tacombs," as Maitland calls it, was preparing to 
come forth from her caverns and take possession 
of the city above. "At Rome," says Luther, 
"by the church of St. Calixtus (or St. Sebastian) 
he in one vault, as is said, more than eight thou- 
sand martyrs, and that is a most sacred spot. 
Under the church, enclosed in sarcophagi, he one 
hundred and seventy-six thousand holy bodies, 
and forty-five popes who were martyrs. The 
place is called the Crypt. For full three hundred 
years did the persecutions rage ; and they rose to 
such a pitch of fury that, as we learn from his- 
tory, seventy thousand martyrs were slain in the 



154 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1510. 



empire in one day. There is still to be seen at 
Rome a burial-place, where, as it is said, eighty 
thousand martyrs and forty-six bishops lie." The 
exaggeration in these accounts which were given 
to Luther consists not so much in the numbers 
of the dead as in pronouncing them, on fallacious 
grounds, martyrs. These catacombs, which were 
closed in Luther's time, as they had been during 
all the Middle Ages, have since been opened, and 
their contents, containing a wonderful history in 
the inscriptions, placed in the Vatican. 

But Luther saw other things which shocked his 
feelings, though they did not then shake his faith. 
Afterward, when he came to understand the true 
character of the papacy, the recollections of what 
he had seen at Rome were constantly springing 
up in his mind as illustrations of the most shock- 
ing corruption of the church. "The pope," he 
observes, "moves as if making a triumphal entry, 
with beautiful and richly caparisoned horses be- 
fore him, and he himself bears the sacrament 
upon a splendid white palfrey." "At Rome, 
when they pronounce the ban of excommunica- 
tion, about twenty cardinals sit and throw from 
them burning torches, extinguishing them by the 
cast, thereby showing that the well-being and sal- 
vation of the persons so excommunicated will be 
extinguished in like manner. And (as a little 
bell was rung at the same time) this ceremony 
was called lighting and tinkling a man." Little 
did Luther think while learning such things at 
Rome that he was one day to be thus " lighted 
and tinkled." In another place he says, "I have 



JE. 26.] 



IN ROME. 



155 



been in Rome, have held many mass-services there, 
and have seen others hold many in a way that 
filleth me with horror when I think thereupon." 
In the following, he seems to speak as one who 
had been an eye-witness : " What Christian can, 
without pain, observe that the pope, when he is 
to partake of the communion, sitteth still like a 
gracious Lord, and maketh a cardinal, with bended 
knee, reach to him the sacrament in a golden 
tube?" 

He speaks of the revolting licentiousness which 
prevailed even among the cardinals whom he saw, 
and pronounces the Roman court a brothel. He 
adds, " I myself have heard people say openly in 
the streets of Rome, if there be a hell, Rome is 
built upon it." He once said he would not take 
one hundred thousand florins for what he had seen 
at Rome ; " we speak of what we have seen." 

Still all these abominations did not alienate 
Luther from the Roman church. He revered 
her, in spite of the sins of pope and cardinal, 
monk and priest. As late as 1519, he could say, 
"The Roman church is honoured of God above 
all others. . . . There St. Peter and St. Paul, and 
forty-six popes and many thousand martyrs did 
shed their blood. . . . Though, alas ! it is not as it 
should be at Rome, notwithstanding there is, and 
can be, no reason for separating from it." 



156 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1510. 



SECTION IV. — Luther at Wittenberg again. 

Of his return from Rome, and of his studies 
and occupations for the next succeeding year or 
two, but little is known. The first important 
event after that period is his promotion in the- 
ology, in 1512. He had taken the second degree, 
or that of sententiarius, during the interval, pro- 
bably in 1511, both at Wittenberg and at Erfurt. 
Of the singular dispute which afterward arose 
between him and the monks of Erfurt on this 
subject, mention will be made elsewhere. 

Staupitz, who had interested himself so deeply 
in Luther's welfare ever since his first acquaint- 
ance with him, and who, for the benefit of the 
church, had undertaken to guide his steps, was 
not disappointed in the hopes he had entertained 
of his young friend. He had already made him 
reader at table in the monastery, substituting the 
Scriptures in the place of Augustine's writings, 
which had hitherto been read to the monks during 
meal-times. He was raised to the rank of licen- 
tiate in theology, (the next degree above senten- 
tiarius,) the 4th of October, 1512, and finally to 
the degree of doctor of divinity, on the 19th of 
the same month. His reluctance to receive this 
honour, (or rather office as it then was,) appears 
to have been not less than that which he felt 
when it was proposed to make him preacher. It 
was manifested in a similar way, and overcome by 
similar arguments. In his letter of invitation to 
the Erfurt convent to attend the ceremony, he 



M. 28.] AT WITTENBERG. 157 

says he is to receive the degree " out of obedience 
to the fathers and the vicar." In a dedicatory 
epistle to the Elector Frederic, written several 
years after, he says, "At your expense was the 
doctor's hat placed upon my witless head, an 
honour at which I blush, but which I am con- 
strained to bear, because those whom it is my 
duty to obey would have it so." Among the 
letters of Luther is found the receipt which he 
signed for the fifty florins furnished him by the 
elector for paying the costs of the degree. A 
doctor's ring of massive gold was presented to 
him by the elector at the same time, which is still 
to be seen in the library of Wolfenbuttel. On 
the 19th of October the ceremony was performed 
with great pomp, with solemn procession and the 
ringing of the great bell. This appointment — for 
it was not a mere honour — given him by the 
united voice of his religious superiors, his sove- 
reign and the university, he construed, and ever 
after regarded, as a Divine call to teach religion 
in the most public manner. " I was called," says 
he, "and forced to the office, and was obliged, 
from the duty of obedience, to be doctor contrary 
to my will, . . . and to promise with an oath to 
teach purely and sincerely according to the Scrip- 
tures." Tubingen and Wittenberg were the only 
universities where such an oath was required. 
Under this oath, administered to him by Carl- 
stadt, Luther claimed the right to appeal to the 
Bible as the only ultimate authority, and thus 
formally did he plant himself upon the funda- 
mental principle of Protestantism. 

14 



158 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1512. 



At the time, both he and the highest authori- 
ties, secular and ecclesiastical, supposed there was 
a substantial agreement between the teachings of 
the church and those of the Bible. When he be- 
came thoroughly convinced of the contrary, he 
adhered to the letter of the oath, and turned it 
against the very power that had exacted it. He 
even burnt the papal bull, as he says, " because 
his title, office, station and oath required him to 
overthrow or ward off false, dangerous and un- 
christian doctrines !" Thus when his enemies as- 
sailed him as a disobedient son of the church, he 
availed himself of this defence. When Satan 
sorely pressed him with doubts and temptations 
in respect to the great commotion which he was 
the means of exciting in the Christian world, his 
heart found assurance and his conscience relief, 
in recurring to his public and formal call. In re- 
ference to this matter he remarks : " At the com- 
mand of the pope and of the emperor, (both of 
whom had given to the university authority to 
confer degrees,) and in a regular and free uni- 
versity, (its freedom, too, had been conceded to 
the elector,) I began, as became a doctor who had 
taken an oath to that effect, to explain the Scrip- 
tures before the world, . . . and having begun thus 
to do, I had cause to continue, and cannot now 
with a good conscience go back or break off, even 
though pope and emperor should put me under 
the ban." Whether all his reasoning on the 
subject was strictly correct or not, he was evi- 
dently very conscientious about it. He affirms 
that he had times of distress in relation to this 



M. 29 ] 



AT WITTENBERG. 



159 



point, when he felt the perspiration start all over 
him. 

The period of about two years immediately fol- 
lowing the date above mentioned, appears to have 
been chiefly taken up in preparing for his lec- 
tures, and in acquiring the original languages of 
the Bible. The only events mentioned in con- 
nection with him during that time, are a dispu- 
tation, in 1512, by a candidate for the first degree 
in theology, and another in 1513, for the second 
degree, at both of which he was the presiding 
officer. Such things were of frequent occurrence 
with him at a later period. Inasmuch as it is 
evident that Luther knew little of Greek or He- 
brew before the year 1513, whereas we find him 
making use of both with some facility the next 
year, the inference is plain, that he must have 
studied them zealously about this time. Mathe- 
sius represents Luther as " spelling out the words 
of the Bible" after he commenced lecturing upon 
it. The first books on which he lectured were 
the Epistle to the Romans and the Psalms, which, 
the same biographer informs us, took place imme- 
diately after he was made doctor. How admi- 
rably would lecturing on that epistle agree with 
the long and hard struggle through which his 
mind had passed on the subject of justification ; 
and how well was such an exercise adapted to 
prepare him for his great work as reformer ! In 
the Psalms, too, so peculiarly a book of the heart, 
how much would a man of Luther's ardent, de- 
vout and poetical mind, discover to be just what 
his religious necessities called for ! Here we find 



160 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1513. 



in part the secret of his great success as a uni- 
versity lecturer. He not only brought to light 
treasures of spiritual knowledge from an almost 
forgotten book, but treated of those subjects in 
which his whole soul felt a vital interest, and 
that, too, in the ardour of acquisition both as a 
scholar and as a Christian. 

"These writings," (the Epistle to the Ro- 
mans and the Psalms,) says Melancthon, "he 
explained after such a sort that, in the estima- 
tion of all pious and intelligent persons, a new 
day, succeeding a long night of darkness, was 
dawning upon the Christian doctrines." His earn- 
est discussions, in which he clearly distinguished 
between law and gospel, justification by works 
and justification by faith, opened a new world of 
ideas to the student. Still his interpretations, 
judged by a modern standard, must often ap- 
pear imperfect. 

Let us here pause a moment and contemplate 
the position he now held. He had fully adopted 
the two great Protestant principles of justifica- 
tion by faith in Christ, and the right of private 
judgment in interpreting the Scriptures ; but he 
was by no means aware that these were the 
germs of a new order of things which could not 
be developed without separating him from the 
church. Meantime he was becoming a bold, 
strong and independent thinker, and beginning 
already, without directly intending it, to wield 
a commanding and renovating influence over his 
pupils and friends. Others, who had opposed 
the church, had fixed their eye primarily on 



JE. 29.] 



AT WITTENBERG. 



161 



certain evils, and begun, of set purpose, to ope- 
rate against them, using religion as a means only 
to that end, and thereby became but negative re- 
formers. Such were the promoters of classical 
learning, who were offended at the ignorance and 
stupidity of the clergy, and many of the actors 
at the councils of Constance and Basle, who were 
more anxious to crush the power of the pope and 
correct public abuses than to revive a spirit of 
primitive piety. But Luther first fed, for a long 
time, the flame of experimental religion in his 
own heart, and then spread the fire by his con- 
versations and lectures, and thus became the in- 
strument of a regenerating movement, by merely 
unfolding and expounding the religious elements 
which he brought with him from the convent of 
Erfurt. 

In the Wolfenbiittel library is preserved Lu- 
ther's copy of the Psalms in Hebrew, printed on 
a quarto page, in the centre of which stands the 
Hebrew text, with wide spaces between the lines. 
On the broad margin and between the lines are 
to be seen the notes, in Latin, of his first lec- 
tures on this book, delivered probably in 1513. 
It is believed that he caused copies to be printed 
in this form for the greater convenience of the 
students in taking notes and connecting them 
with the words of the text. The great value 
of this singular book consists in the record it 
contains of Luther's religious and theological 
views at that period. Jiirgens, who has care- 
fully examined this earliest of Luther's Scrip- 
ture expositions which have been preserved — it 

14* 



162 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1513. 



exists only in manuscript, and in Luther's hand- 
writing — remarks : " It contains the clearest in- 
dications how little Luther had advanced in bibli- 
cal interpretation ; and yet it occasionally points 
to the way in which he afterward became so 
eminent as an expositor of Scripture. We refer 
particularly to his disposition to go back to the 
original sources. But he appears still to be 
without a competent knowledge of the Hebrew. 
He makes use of a defective Latin translation, 
agreeing with the Vulgate, and adheres closely 
to it, though he knows the Hebrew text, and 
constantly refers to it as well as to the Greek 
version." We find him, as he is represented by 
these notes, still a perfect monk, filled with all 
the monastic notions and superstitions ; in his 
interpretation, given to allegory and conceits, 
except on two or three points where he becomes 
luminous, which circumstance gives to the whole 
the appearance of a morning twilight with its at- 
tendant indications of approaching day. We must 
constantly keep this in mind ; for with him, the 
dawning light approached slowly, and for ten 
years it was dark in the west after the east was 
streaked with red. 

It is now time to notice more particularly his 
misunderstanding with the university at Erfurt. 
It seems that after he had taken his second de- 
gree in theology in Wittenberg, complaints were 
made from Erfurt, where he had received his 
education, and that he consequently postponed 
lecturing on those subjects for which that degree 
was regarded as a license, and went to Erfurt, 



JE. 30.] 



AT WITTENBERG. 



163 



and with some difficulty obtained the degree 
there. Three or four years afterward, some 
monks of that city, who envied his growing re- 
putation, attempted to humble him by circulat- 
ing reports unfavourable to his integrity, and 
by going back to that old difficulty to rake up 
evidence against him. 

As the correspondence contains some of the 
earliest indications of the slumbering lion that 
was in him, it will be a matter of interest to 
glance at its character. The affair itself remains 
in great obscurity. Only two letters of Luther's 
are extant to give us any light on the subject; 
and of these but one is published. The new 
complaint was, that Luther, in taking the degree 
of doctor in divinity at Wittenberg instead of 
Erfurt, had violated an oath he had taken when 
he received the degree of master in theology, or 
sententiarius, at the latter place. The accusation 
was made by a certain master Nathin, who was 
both an inmate of the convent and a teacher in 
the university. 

Luther's first letter on the subject is dated 
June 16, 1514, and is directed to the prior and 
seniors of the Erfurt convent. In this he refers 
to two preceding letters, now lost, in which he 
had refuted the charges falsely brought against 
him. There was, indeed, a law in the Erfurt 
University requiring that he who should receive 
the first degree in theology there, should take 
an oath to receive the second there also; and 
he who received the second was to do the same 
in regard to the degree of doctor of divinity, He 



164 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1514. 



exculpated himself by saying that he never took 
the first degree at Erfurt, but at Wittenberg; 
and that, in taking the second, nothing was said 
or done about the oath. The irregularity, there- 
fore, was on the part of his accusers, and not on 
his. But let us hear his own words : 

" Although I have heard and read sundry evil 
reports spread by some of your convent which 
make against you, and more particularly against 
myself; yet, by the late letters of master John 
Nathin, written in the name of you all, by his 
falsehoods, his biting words, his bitter provoca- 
tions and reproaches, I was so disturbed that I 
came near pouring out, after the example of mas- 
ter Paltz, both upon him and upon the whole con- 
vent, the full vials of my wrath and indignation. 
For this cause I wrote unto you two foolish let- 
ters. I know not whether they came into your 
hands, and should soon have sent }^ou the hidden 
mystery thereof, had not that slanderous tongue 
been silenced by your convocation. I am, there- 
fore, constrained to excuse many of you, nay, 
most of you. If, then, you were in any degree 
offended, or if some of you find yourselves men- 
tioned by name in those letters, take in good 
part what I have done, and reckon it all to the 
account of the bitter things which master Nathin 
did write. For my vehement indignation was 
just. But now do I hear what is yet worse, 
that this same man everywhere proclaimeth, I 
know not on what grounds, that I am a perjured 
and infamous person. I request you, since I fear 
you cannot stop his mouth, to avoid him, and 



M. 30.] 



AT WITTENBERG. 



165 



warn others not to regard his speeches. 1 have 
violated no oath, for I was promoted in another 
place. Both the universities and you all know 
that I did not receive my biblical degree, wherein 
the oath is taken, at Erfurt. Nor am I conscious 
of ever having taken any oath in my whole course. 
My degree of sententiarius I did, in truth, take 
at Erfurt ; but no one, I trow, will affirm that I 
took any oath. But what master Nathin hath 
yet to hear from me, concerning the authority 
given unto me to teach and to govern, (when 
the degree was conferred,) will perhaps be seen 
at the proper time. I write these things, most 
excellent fathers, to the end that the Erfurt 
theologians may not look upon me as a despiser 
of their university; to which, as to a mother, I 
attribute all that 1 have. I have not contemned 
them, nor will I ever, although my abode and pro- 
motion elsewhere have separated me from them. 
The convent could then, with a word, have pre- 
vented both of these events, if it had desired. 
But what it could then do, but would not, it 
cannot now do, if it would. Thus, it hath pleased 
God to bring to nought the dissensions and threat- 
enings of them that were asking for vengeance. 
But let them go on. I am at peace and recon- 
ciled unto you all, though I was offended. God 
hath singularly blessed me, unworthy as I am, so 
that I have cause only to rejoice, to love, and to 
do good to them that deserve the contrary of me, 
just as I receive of the Lord the contrary of what 
I deserve. I therefore pray you to be resigned, 
and lay aside bitterness, if any remains, and not 



166 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1514. 



to be disturbed by my connection with another 
university, for so God would have it, and we 
cannot resist him." 

The other letter was written in January of 
1515, and directed to the theological faculty of 
the university. It enters more into particulars, 
which we must pass over with the single remark 
that it states the fact of his having been called 
to Erfurt to be examined in respect to the degree 
of sententiariuSy which he had received at Witten- 
berg, and which, after much difficulty, was con- 
firmed at Erfurt. Nathin, of course, had con- 
tinued his opposition, till the university was so 
far affected by his representations that it was 
necessary for Luther to exculpate himself before 
them. 

In the tone of these letters, we look in vain for 
the spirit of the once timid and submissive monk. 
He comes forward, single-handed, against a host, 
with a sense of his rights, and a consciousness 
not only of his innocence, but of his power. With 
a desire for peace, and the olive leaf in his hand, 
he, at the same time, gives no doubtful indications 
that he is prepared for war. Here we see the 
same Luther that could stand up alone at the diet 
of Worms, and speak without fear before emperor 
and princes and cardinals. 

Something more than the mere habit of lectur- 
ing had contributed to this result, in respect to 
his present boldness of character. His biogra- 
phers state that he had held frequent public dis- 
putations with his colleagues, and that in these 
he always came off triumphant. The reason of 



jE. 30.] 



IN WITTENBERG. 



167 



his meeting so much opposition was, that he ad- 
vocated new and strange views; and the reason 
of his being victorious was, as well that he was 
in the right, as that he knew how to maintain his 
ground. He openly assailed the authority of 
Aristotle in theology, on whom the sententiarists 
mainly relied. Carls tadt and Truttvetter, in par- 
ticular, disputed him. 

The point in debate was fundamental. It re- 
lated, as Luther says, to first principles, namely, 
whether the doctrines of the schoolmen, who fol- 
lowed Aristotle, were to be received on the as- 
sumption that they were true, and argument to 
proceed from them as from well-settled principles ; 
or, whether these doctrines were themselves to 
be called in question, and examined anew in the 
light of Scripture and of reason. Both parties 
were well aware that on this hinge turned all the 
questions between the old and the new, the scho- 
lastic and the biblical views of theology. Luther 
fought out the battle with gigantic strength. He 
completely converted Carlstadt and the other 
young theologians to his biblical doctrines. Trutt- 
vetter, his old teacher, not being able to maintain 
his position, and not being willing to succumb to 
his own pupil, retired from the conflict, and went 
back to Erfurt in 1513. Luther afterward sup- 
posed he was the innocent cause of hastening the 
death of that sturdy old scholastic divine. 

In all this it is easy to find an explanation of 
the perfectly independent and decided tone with 
which Luther stood up and declared that he could 
but just refrain from "pouring out the full vials 



168 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1515. 



of his wrath against the whole convent;" and, 
perhaps, the return of Truttvetter, under such 
circumstances, to the University of Erfurt, will 
suggest at least one reason why the calumny of 
Nathin should be listened to there, after it had 
been put down at the convent. 

The little information we have respecting Lu- 
ther from the beginning of 1515, to the beginning 
of 1516, may be regarded as indirect evidence 
that^he was going steadily and prosperously on in 
the course he had begun, constantly accumulating 
that power and influence which was so soon to be 
put in requisition. The interest he felt in the 
controversy which was then raging between 
Reuchlin and the stupid Dominicans at Cologne, 
in respect to the utility of the study of the He- 
brew and Greek languages, and the advancement 
which he himself made in the knowledge of these 
languages about this time, put it beyond doubt 
that the lectures which he delivered on the vari- 
ous books of the Bible were founded, more and 
more, on the original Hebrew and Greek Scrip- 
tures. He also continued earnestly engaged in 
academic disputations, for, from some of the older 
professors, he still met with opposition. During 
this year, he was made dean of the theological 
faculty, and under him, according to the university 
records, a large number of Augustinian eremites 
received their degrees in theology. Odelkop, who 
heard his lectures, particularly those on the Epis- 
tle to the Romans, at this time, says Luther dili- 
gently prosecuted his studies and preached, and 
delivered lectures and held debates. In this year 



M. 32.] 



AT WITTENBERG. 



169 



were preached the first three discourses of his 
which have been preserved. In these he mani- 
fests decided progress in the clearness and solidity 
of his religious views. In the first of those dis- 
courses, he strongly urges the doctrine, that piety 
consists not in outward works, but in an inward 
principle ; that an act, in itself good, becomes even 
sinful if the motive be sinful. Nothing could more 
clearly indicate that Luther was outgrowing the 
discipline and tuition of that church, whose reli- 
gion consisted chiefly in outward forms and cere- 
monies, and whose theology was as void of vitality 
as was its piety. 

1516. 

Not only is this an important year in the life 
of Luther, as a period of transition from a condi- 
tion of comparative retirement to one of great 
publicity, as forming the boundary line between 
Luther the learned and somewhat disputatious 
monk, and Luther the reformer; but here, for the 
first time, the mist of obscurity which has hitherto 
mantled his personal history is cleared away, and, 
from this period on, all the principal events of his 
life are so fully chronicled that we can follow his 
course with comparative ease. Of his published 
letters, only seven precede this date : one in 1507, 
inviting his friend Brown to his ordination as 
priest; one in 1509, to the same, excusing him- 
self for having come away from Erfurt without 
taking leave of him; one in 1510, to Spalatin, 
expressing a favourable opinion of Ueuchlin, and 
censuring his opponents; two in 1512, the former 

15 



170 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[151G. 



being an invitation to the convent at Erfurt to be 
present at his promotion to the rank of doctor of 
divinity, the latter being his receipt for fifty florins 
to defray the expenses of the ceremony ; and two 
in 1514, the one, the bold letter already mentioned, 
relating to his difficulties with Erfurt; the other a 
second letter to Spalatin, condemning the course 
of Ortuin, one of Reuchlin's opponents at Cologne. 
In this last, we perceive that vein of drollery 
and sarcasm with which his subsequent writings 
abound. He speaks of that "poetaster," as he 
calls him, in terms of derision and scorn, and 
allows himself to use language always objection- 
able, but less noticed then than at the present 
day. After applying to him several opprobrious 
epithets, he adds : " I think that he himself, in- 
structed by our Heuchlin, did feel his asinity, so 
to express myself, to such a degree that he medi- 
tated laying aside the ass and putting on the 
majesty of the lion, but unluckily, undertaking a 
metamorphosis beyond his strength, he took too 
short a leap, and fell into a wolf or crocodile." 

Though up to this period we have in all only 
seven or eight of his letters preserved, in the sin- 
gle year 1516 we have twenty, in the following 
year twenty-three, in 1518, fifty-six, and so on, to 
the amount of five large octavo volumes. From 
these letters alone a tolerably full biography of 
Luther might be written. 

February 2, 1516, he writes to his intimate 
friend, John Lange, prior of the cloister at Erfurt, 
a letter which strikingly illustrates the state of 
his mind in respect to the Aristotelian philosophy, 



M. 32.] 



IN WITTENBERG. 



171 



and the scholastic theology founded upon it; and 
also the relations of his old teachers, Truttvetter, 
or Jodocus of Eisenach, as he generally calls him, 
and Usingen, both to scholasticism and to himself. 
He writes : " I send the accompanying letter, reve- 
rend father, to the excellent Jodocus of Eisenach, 
full of positions against [the Aristotelian] logic, 
philosophy and theology, that is, full of blasphe- 
mies and maledictions against Aristotle, Porphyry 
and the sententiarists, the pernicious study of this 
our age. . . . See that these be put into his hands, 
and take pains to find out what he and all the rest 
think of me in this matter, and let me know. I 
have no other more eager desire than to make 
known to many, and, if I have time, to show to 
all, how ignominiously that old actor, under his 
Greek mask, playeth and maketh pastime with 
the church. . . . My greatest sorrow is, that 1 
am constrained to see brethren of good parts and 
of gifts qualifying them for study, spend their 
time and waste their lives in such vain pursuits, 
while the universities cease not to burn and to 
condemn good books, and then make, or rather 
dream out, new ones in their room. I wish Usin- 
gen as well as Truttvetter would leave off these 
studies, or at least be more moderate therein. 
My shelves are stored with weapons against their 
writings, which I perceive to be utterly useless ; 
and all others would see the same, were they not 
bound to a more than Pythagorean silence." 

Thus we see Luther hating Aristotle, because 
the scholastic theologians perversely put him in 
the place of the prophets and apostles; entertain- 



172 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1516. 



ing a feeling of respect for his two principal 
university teachers, and yet doubtful whether 
what he wrote to them would not rather offend 
than enlighten them; impatient to expose the 
monstrous abuse, pitying the hapless youth who 
must be perplexed with these tedious studies 
only to be misled; indignant at those birds of 
night at Cologne, who scream out, "Heresy!" at 
what they have not sense enough to comprehend ; 
confident that he possesses the means of exploding 
the whole system ; but sighing over the timidity 
of those who would easily be convinced but for 
their fear of giving offence. Nothing but time 
and circumstances were wanting to call him out, 
even at this early period. 

But there was another element of character 
combined with this, that gave depth and a re- 
generating power to Luther's influence. In a 
letter dated April, 1516, we learn that his mind 
was, in reference to that particular feature, under- 
going a most favourable development. 

Our meaning will be apparent by the language 
of the letter itself. After a few words relating 
to a certain economical transaction, he writes to 
Spenlein, a monk of Memniingen, a little south 
of Ulm: "But I desire to know how it is with 
your soul; whether, weary of your own righte- 
ousness, you have learned to refresh yourself 
with, and put your trust in, the righteousness of 
Christ. For in our times presuming of ourselves 
is the chief temptation, especially in them that 
are striving with all their might to be righteous 
and good. Being ignorant of the righteousness 



JE. 32.] 



IN WITTENBERG. 



173 



of God, which is abundantly and freely given to 
us in Christ, they seek continually to perform 
good works of themselves until they can have 
confidence to stand before God adorned in their 
own good works and merits, which is impossible. 
When you were with us [in the cloister at Er- 
furt?] you -were of this opinion, or rather in this 
error, and so w T as I. I still have to fight against 
this error in myself, and have not yet altogether 
overcome it. Therefore, my dear brother, ac- 
quaint yourself with Christ and him crucified ; 
learn to praise him; despairing of yourself, say 
to him, 'Lord Jesus, thou art my righteousness, 
and I am thy sin : thou hast taken to thyself 
w T hat is mine, and given me w T hat is thine ; thou 
hast assumed what thou wast not, and given to 
me what I was not.' Beware of aspiring to such 
purity as to be unwilling to appear, and also to be 
in very deed, a sinner. For Christ dwelleth only 
in sinners. For this cause Christ descended from 
heaven, wh ere he dwelleth in the righteous, to the 
end that he might dwell also in sinners. Meditate 
upon this love of his, and you wall find therein his 
most sweet consolations. For if by our toils and 
conflicts w T e could obtain peace of conscience, why 
should he die ? Therefore you will not find 
peace save in him, by utterly despairing of your- 
self and of your own w r orks. Learn then of him, 
as he received you and made your sins his own, 
so to make his righteousness yours. 

"If you steadfastly believe this as you ought, 
(and cursed is N he who believeth it not,) then re- 
ceive your brethren, who have been refractory and 

15* 



174 



LIFE OF LUTHER, 



[1516. 



gone astray, and patiently carry them along and 
make their sins yours ; and if you have any thing 
good, let it be theirs, as the apostle saith, ' Receive 
one another, even as Christ hath received you to 
the glory of God and again, ' Let the same mind 
he in you which was in Christ Jesus, who, when 
he was in the form of God, emptied himself,' &c. 
So you, if you seem to yourself to he better, do 
not look upon it as a plunder, as if it were yours 
alone ; but empty yourself, and forget what you 
are, and be as one of them, and bear them in your 
arms. His is an unhappy righteousness which 
niaketh him unwilling to support others who ap- 
pear worse in comparison, and maketh him flee 
and retreat when he ought to be present and 
succour them by his patience and prayers and 
example. This is burying the Lord's talent, and 
not giving to his fellow-servants what is their 
due. If then you will be a lily and a rose of 
Christ, know that you must be among thorns. 
Only be careful that by impatience, hasty judg- 
ment, or secret pride, you do not yourself become 
a thorn. The kingdom of Christ is in the midst 
of his enemies, as the Psalm saith. Why then 
do you think of it as in the midst of his friends ? 
In whatsoever therefore you are deficient, seek the 
supply, prostrate before the Lord Jesus. He will 
teach you all things. Only consider what he hath 
done for you and for all, that you may learn what 
you ought to do for others. If he had wished to 
live only among the good and to die for his friends 
alone, for whom, I ask, would he have died, or 
with whom would he ever have lived? Thus do, 



M. 82.] IN WITTENBERG. 175 

my brother, and pray for me, and the Lord be with 
you." 

We have presented the whole of this letter, ex- 
cept the introductory paragraph, in order that the 
reader may see into the heart of Luther as he was 
at this period, and form some conception of the 
power of his religious influence, as exerted upon 
numerous brethren by a mass of letters of similar 
import, which have not been preserved. Mathe- 
sius informs us that he wrote many such during 
the first four years of his doctorate. 

One other letter of similar tendency, and written 
in the same month, is still extant. A brother 
Leiffer in Erfurt "was agitated by the tempests 
and billows of temptation." After affirming, 
"from his own experience, as well as that of his 
brother, nay, from the experience of all, that our 
worldly wisdom is the cause of all our disquiet," 
and that his own exceedingly depraved reason, or 
u vicious eye," as he terms it, had vexed him with 
extreme wretchedness, and continued to do so still, 
he proceeds : " The cross of Christ is distributed 
throughout all the world, and to each one is always 
given his portion. Do not you, therefore, cast it 
away, but rather receive it as a most sacred relic, 
and place it aw T ay, not in a gold or silver casket, 
but in a golden heart, that is, a heart imbued with 
gentle charity. For if the w T ood of the cross Avas 
consecrated by contact with the flesh and blood 
of Christ, so that fragments of it should be trea- 
sured up as the choicest relics, how much more 
should the injuries, persecutions, passions and 
hatred of men, whether of the righteous or of the 



176 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1516. 



wicked, be regarded as most sacred relics, which, 
not indeed by contact with Christ's flesh, but by 
the love of his most anguished heart and of his 
Divine will, have been embraced, kissed and 
blessed, and more than consecrated, inasmuch as 
cursing is turned into blessing, injury into equity, 
suffering into glory, and the cross into rejoicing. 
Farewell, dear father and brother, and pray for 
me." How characteristic ! Written in the very 
midst of the sumptuous collection of sacred relics 
in the Electoral Church, which to his spiritual 
mind served no other purpose than to furnish 
imagery for deeper truths, this letter leads us 
back to Erfurt, to those scenes where Luther first 
found the true cross of Christ, and then along the 
path of his subsequent experience, where, like 
Bunyan's pilgrim, he is seen, as a sort of religious 
mirror, reflecting the whole interior of the Chris- 
tian life. 

In both these letters we see the intensity and 
fervour of his religious feeling, showing a depth 
and maturity of character as great as in those 
vigorous assaults made by him upon the scholastic 
theology — spiritual health within, and a bold ac- 
tivity without. 

Not far from the date of the foregoing letters, 
Staupitz was sent into the Netherlands to collect 
relics for the Elector Frederic. What strange in- 
congruities meet us just at the moment that the 
night of superstition is passing away ! In conse- 
quence of this singular embassy, Luther was made 
vicar of the order in Saxony and Thuringia, in 
place of Staupitz, for about a year and a half, or 



JE. 32.] 



IN WITTENBERG. 



177 



from April, 1516, to about November of 1517. 
"This," as Jiirgens well remarks, "was a sign of 
great confidence on the part of Staupitz, — a sign 
of Luther's high standing already in the order. 
Staupitz could not have committed his own office 
to so young a man, unless the intellectual supe- 
riority of the latter was universally acknow- 
ledged, or at least felt. Otherwise, how could 
Luther venture to appear as overseer of the very 
cloister where not many years before he had been 
misused in his novitiate, where his singularities 
had been witnessed, but hardly approved, and 
where until very recently an unfriendly feeling 
had been cherished against him in respect to his 
decree, or whatever else was the cause of the 
misunderstanding ? There were distinguished and 
celebrated men there, such as Lange, Link and 
Usingen." 

It is remarkable that, in his accepting this 
office, we find no traces of that shrinking timidity 
which he manifested in 1509, wmen he was ap- 
pointed preacher, and in 1512, when he was made 
doctor of divinity. In a religious point of view, 
he had passed to a joyful and confident state of 
mind. In his theology, he had come to feel 
strong in the Bible, and anxious to open to others, 
as widely as possible, those living fountains of 
truth by which he himself had been so refreshed. 
In practical life, he had, as lecturer and debater 
and principal professor, acquired great skill and 
power, and seemed to feel like a young hero pant- 
ing to engage in some worthy enterprise. He 
entered upon his duties with eagerness, and with 



178 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



a firm hand. To the decorous but unhesitating 
tone of authority which he assumed, the cloister of 
Erfurt never uttered a murmur. On the contrary, 
his correspondence with Lange, the prior, implies 
the highest degree of confidence and cordiality. 

Luther, immediately after his appointment, set 
out upon a journey of visitation, and passed the 
last of April, all of May and the beginning of 
June in going from cloister to cloister in his pro- 
vince, regulating discipline, encouraging education 
and the study of the Bible in particular, dismiss- 
ing unskilful priors and appointing others in their 
place. The faithful discharge of the duties of 
this office made him intimately acquainted with 
the moral condition of the monks of his order, 
and the knowledge thus acquired was invaluable 
to him at a future period. 

The first monastery he visited was that of 
Grimma, near Leipsic, and still nearer the nun- 
nery of Mmptschen, where Catharine von Bora, 
Luther's future wife, then a girl of sixteen, was 
nun. As Staupitz and Link accompanied Luther 
to this place, and as the former performed in this 
instance the duties of visitation, it would seem 
that Luther was here practically initiated into his 
new calling. While they were thus engaged at 
Grimma, Tetzel made his appearance in the adja- 
cent town of Wurtzen, and practised his arts in 
selling indulgences so shamelessly as to arouse 
the indignation of both Luther and Staupitz. 
This is the time when the former resolved to ex- 
pose the traffic, and threatened " to make a hole 
in Tetzel's drum." 



M. 32.] 



IN WITTENBERG. 



179 



We next find him in Dresden, examining the 
state of the monastery of the Augustinians in 
that place. Here he writes a letter, May 1, to 
the prior in Mainz, requesting him to send back 
to Dresden a runaway monk, " For," says he, 
"that lost sheep belongeth to me. It is my duty 
to find him and bring him back from his wander- 
ings, if so it please the Lord Jesus. I entreat you 
therefore, reverend father, by our common faith 
in Christ, and by our profession, to send him unto 
me, if in your kindness you can, either at Dres- 
den or Wittenberg, or rather persuade him, and 
affectionately and kindly move him to come of 
his own accord. I will meet him with open arms, 
if he will but return. He need not fear that he 
has offended me. I know full well that offences 
must come ; nor is it strange that a man should 
fall. It is rather strange that he should rise 
again and stand. Peter fell, that he might know 
he was but a man. At the present day also, the 
cedars of Lebanon, whose summits reach the 
skies, fall. The angels fell in heaven, and Adam 
in Paradise. Is it then strange that a reed should 
quiver in the breeze, and the smoking lamp be 
put out ?" This is the first letter in which he 
signs his name as " Vicar of the Augustinian 
Eremites in Misnia and Thuringia." 

His next letter, (and we give all in their order 
which are written in 1516,) is dated May 29, after 
he had nearly finished his tour. He had been in 
Erfurt and was then in Gotha, which he was un- 
willing to leave without paying his respects in 
some way to Mutianus, a great classical and belles- 



180 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



lettres scholar, who, as long ago as when Luther 
was a student at Erfurt, was at the head of a lite- 
rary club, to which many of the university friends 
of Luther belonged. Luther addresses him thus : 
" That I have not visited you, most learned and 
accomplished Mutianus, nor invited you to visit 
me, is owing first to my haste and the stress of 
my business, and, secondly, to my high opinion 
and true veneration of you. Our friendship is of 
too short a standing to justify me in humbling 
your excellence so far as to request you to visit 
me. I must now go where my duty calleth me, 
but not without first saluting you, though, from a 
sense of my ignorance and uncouth style, I shrink 
from it. But my affection for you overcometh my 
modesty- and that rustic Cory don, Martin, barba- 
rous and accustomed only to cackle among the 
geese, saluteth you, the scholar, the man of the 
most polished erudition. Yet I am sure, or cer- 
tainly presume, that Mutianus valueth the heart 
above tongue or pen; and my heart is sufficiently 
erudite, for it is sufficiently devoted to you. Fare- 
well, most excellent father in the Lord Jesus, and 
be not forgetful of me." Postscript. "One thing 
I wish you to know: father John Lange, whom 
you have known as a Greek and Latin scholar, 
and what is more, as a man of a pure heart, hath 
now lately been made prior of the Erfurt convent 
by me. Unto man commend him by a friendly 
word, and unto God by your prayers." 

The same day he wrote another letter from 
Langensalza, a little north of Grotha, to Lange 
himself, instructing him how to proceed in his 



m. 32.] 



IN WITTENBERG. 



181 



official station. He says at the close: "I have 
not found in this district any convents in so good 
a state as here and in Gottern," [between Langen- 
salza and Miihlhausen.] "I have despatched my 
business here in one hour, and think I shall do 
the same there in two. By the blessing of God, I 
hope to proceed toward Nordhausen to-morrow, 
trusting that in these two places God will work 
without me both in spiritual and temporal things, 
though the devil is unwilling." 

On the 8th of June, he is again in Wittenberg, 
and writes to Spalatin, Frederic's secretary, dis- 
suading the elector from his purpose of making 
Staupitz bishop. "These are not times to be 
happy, or even comfortable in ruling as bishop, 
i. e. in being given up to carousals, sodomy and 
Roman corruption." Though he is "free from such 
vices," he ought not to be involved "in the whirl- 
pools and violent tempests of the bishops' courts." 

On the 22d, he writes to Dressel, prior of the 
monastery at Neustadt, a little south of Jena, w r ho 
had some difficulty with the monks, endeavouring 
to comfort him in his afflictions. He was obliged 
afterward to depose him, for want of skill rather 
than of good intention, and to permit the convent 
to choose another. In the former letter, he says : 
"You seek and strive for peace, but in a wrong 
way. You seek it as the w T orld giveth it, not as 
Christ giveth. . . . You cry, with Israel, c Peace, 
peace,' and yet there is no peace. Cry rather with 
Christ, ' The cross, the cross,' and yet there is no 
cross. The cross ceaseth to be such as soon as 
you can say, ? Blessed cross ; among all the kinds 

16 



182 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1516. 



of wood, there is nothing like unto it.' Behold, 
then, how kindly the Lord inviteth you unto true 
peace, when he besetteth you all around with such 
crosses." In the latter, he addresses Dressel and 
the chapter thus : f? I hear with grief, as I well 
deserve, excellent fathers and brethren, that you 
are living void of peace and unity, and though 
you are in one house, you are not of one way; 
neither are you, according to the rule, of one heart 
and one mind. This miserable and unprofitable 
kind of life cometh either from your lack of hu- 
mility — for where humility is there is peace — or 
from my negligence, or at least from your fault and 
mine, in not beseeching the Lord that made us, 
and praying that he would direct our way in his 
sight, and lead us in his righteousness. He erreth, 
he erreth, he erreth, who presumeth to direct him- 
self, not to say others, by his own counsel." He 
then lays the blame chiefly on the brethren for 
not submitting to the prior, but, with kind words, 
requires the prior to resign, at the same time pro- 
nouncing him a well-meaning, upright man. But 
there must be peace and concord. The brethren 
are to choose their own prior, and then pray and 
strive for union. 

The remaining letters of this year are those 
written to his particular friends Lange and Spala- 
tin. They give an interesting view of his occu- 
pations and cares. To the former, under date of 
June 30, he says: "I wrote to you from Sanger- 
hausen, [north of Erfurt and near Eisleben,] most 
excellent father, that if you had any insubordinate 
brother, you might send him thither by way of cor- 



M. 32.] 



IN WITTENBERG. 



183 



rection. I now write unto you again from Witten- 
berg, not only desiring but beseeching you to 
send George of Schleusingen or William Fischer 
to the brethren at Eisleben, or at least allow them 
to go till the reverend father [Staupitz] shall 
return. Rigorous necessity requireth it. Say to 
that brother, and to all, that this is done by me 
not from violence, but because we are all bound, 
and I especially, to maintain the honour of the 
vicariate everywhere, and particularly that of our 
reverend vicar. These same fathers [at Eisleben] 
sent me a brother who came near introducing the 
plague into that young conventual house. Brother 
Caspar, a senior there, lieth dead. Header Antony 
is dead. Father Bacalaureus is in Leipsic. Twc 
others are abroad, as you know, begging money 
for the building. The brother before mentioned 
is now here with me. You yourself see how we 
need succour. Neither you nor others need be 
afraid, the plague doth not prevail there. Fare- 
well, and say farewell to the fathers, masters, 
the reader and others, not in my name, but the 
Lord's." The reader here mentioned is his friend 
George LeifFer, to whom the letter of April 15th 
was addressed. 

The next letter, written August 30th, to 
Lange, is accompanied with Luther's oration de- 
livered to the convent at Gottern, wishing him 
to show it or send it to Braun of Eisenach, 
Wigand of Walthershausen, and reader George 
LeifFer, or any who should wish to see it. The 
remainder of the letter relates to difficulties ex- 
perienced in maintaining study in the cloisters. 



184 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1516. 



"You need not send brethren who are students 
to me, first, for that we have too many [in the 
cloister] already; and secondly, because the plague 
hath broken out vehemently here." October 5th, 
he writes again to the same : " Just as if we [at 
Wittenberg] were in such abundance here, that 
those which you, [at Erfurt,] who are rich, cannot 
maintain, we in our poverty could. We shall 
have [in the cloister] thirty-six here this winter, 
unless the plague prevent, and forty, if all whose 
names are entered should come. You seem to 
have drunken in the Erfurt spirit of distrust, as 
though God could mot feed even the ungrateful, 
and preserve even those that do not desire it. 
Then you make this monastery so much your 
own, that you call other monks strangers, and 
ask me to come to the aid of my mother, [the 
Erfurt monastery.] Take care that you continue 
to walk according to your Tauler, and remain free 
[from all particular interests,] and common for all 
things, as becometh the son of a common God and 
of a common church. Brother John Metzel I will 
send you as soon as I learn that he can be spared 
from Eisleben. 

" Touching my theses, or rather Bartholomew 
Feldkirk's, there is no cause why your Gabrielists 
[followers of Gabriel Biel] should marvel, albeit 
ours here continually do the same. The theses 
were not written by me, but were gotten up by 
Feldkirk, because of the cackling of my enemies 
against my lectures. This he did, to the end that 
these things might be publicly debated, under 
my presiding, in order to stop the mouths of the 



M. 32.] 



IN WITTENBERG. 



185 



garrulous, or to learn the opinions of others.* . . . 
I will keep a few days the brethren whom you 
sent unto me, and see what I can do, or how it 
shall turn out with the plague, which has begun. 
I should be sorry to send them back again, for 
they are apt for study. And yet I am urged by 
want; but the Lord liveth and reigneth." The 
large number of these inmates of the Augustinian 
cloisters w 7 ho were sent to Wittenberg to study in 
the university and live in the monastery, without 
expense, will account for the fact that so many of 
the students who took their degrees in theology at 
Wittenberg about this time, and of those monks 
who first embraced the doctrines of the Refor- 
mation, were Augustinians. How admirably was 
Luther, all this time, sowing the seed for a future 
harvest, as well by directing the studies of nearly 
all the promising young men of his order, as by 
securing, through his diligence and energy, an 
entire ascendency in the monasteries of his pro- 
vince ! 

During the month of August he made several 
journeys on business connected with the duties 
of his office. After a letter on matters of local 
interest, written from Kemberg, whither the pro- 
fessors and students often fled in the time of the 
plague, w 7 e find another, in which there is an 
amusing account of Luther's accumulated labours. 
"I have need, almost," he writes again to Lange, 

* It is these theses on the freedom of the will, written and de- 
fended by Feldkirk, but in reality emanating from Luther, that were 
the occasion of the sparring between Carlstadt and Eck, which ter- 
minated in the Leipsic disputation. 

16* 



186 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1516. 



" of two scribes or secretaries- I do hardly any 
thing, through the whole day, but write letters. I 
therefore cannot tell whether I do always write 
the same things or no. See for yourself. I am 
the preacher of the cloister; I am reader at the 
table; I am required every day to be parish- 
preacher; I am director of the studies of the 
brethren ; I am vicar, that is, eleven times prior ; 
I am inspector of the fish-ponds in Litzkau; I am 
advocate for the Hertzebergers in Torgau; I am 
lecturer on Paul ; I am commentator on the Psalms ; 
and, as I have said, the greater part of my time is 
occupied in writing letters. I seldom have time 
for the canonical hours and for the mass, to say 
nothing of the temptations of the flesh, the world 
and the devil. You see what a man of leisure I 
am. Concerning brother John Metzel, I think 
my opinion and reply have already reached you. 
Nevertheless, I will see what I can do. How do 
you suppose I can find a place for all your Sar- 
danapaluses and sybarites [easy monks] ? If you 
have trained them up wrong, you must support 
them after thus training them. I have useless 
brethren enough everywhere, if any can be useless 
to a patient mind. I am satisfied that the useless 
can be made of more use than the most useful. 
Support them, therefore, for the present. In re- 
spect of the brethren you sent to me, I think 
(but I am not sure) I lately wrote unto you. The 
convert,* with the young men, I sent to master 
Spangenberg, as they desired, to the end that 



* One who becomes monk late in life. 



JE. 33.] 



IN WITTENBERG. 



187 



they might escape from breathing this pestilential 
air. Two I have kept here, with two others from 
Cologne, in whose good parts I felt so deep a con- 
cern that I chose rather to keep them, at no little 
cost, than send them away. There are now twenty- 
two priests and twelve youths, forty-one persons 
in all, who live upon our more than most scanty 
stores. But the Lord will provide. You say you 
began yesterday [to lecture] upon the second part 
of Lombard's Sentences. To-morrow, I shall be- 
gin on the Epistle to the Gralatians. Albeit, I fear 
the plague will not suffer me to go on. It taketh 
away two or three each several day. A son of 
our neighbour, Faber, opposite, who was well yes- 
terday, is carried to his burial to-day. Another 
son lieth infected. "What shall I say? It is 
already here, and hath begun to rage suddenly 
and vehemently — especially with the young. You 
ask me and Bartholomew [Feldkirk] to flee 
with you. Whither shall I flee? I hope the 
world will not fall to pieces, if brother Martin do 
fall. The brethren I shall disperse throughout 
all the country, if the pestilence should prevail. 
But I am placed here, and my duty of obedience 
will not allow me to flee, until the authority 
w^hich commanded me hither shall command me 
away." 

Who can fail, in this letter, to see Luther with 
almost every trait of his character? How frank 
and agreeable his manner with Lange, and how 
sportive his rebukes! Yet how sensible and 
earnest in respect to useless monks; and how 
ready to turn the evil to a spiritual account ! 



188 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1516. 



How strong his sympathy with young students 
of enterprise, and how prompt to aid them ! What 
fidelity in maintaining his post in time of danger, 
and in securing all but himself! Death was a 
trifle to him, compared with unfaithfulness! So 
we see him here, (just one year and five days he- 
fore the ninety-five theses on indulgences were 
published,) like a stream, broad and deep, and ever 
growing broader and deeper as it advances. No 
character was ever more steadily progressive than 
his, from 1507 to 1517. 

The only remaining letter to Lange, during the 
year 1516, is but a note, in which he commands 
that the three obstreperous monks, of whom re- 
peated complaints had been made, should be sent 
to Sangerhausen ; which seems to have been fre- 
quently honoured in this way. The letters to 
Spalatin speak with disapprobation of the way in 
which Erasmus explains "the righteousness of 
the law;" returns thanks to the Elector Frederic, 
"for the present of a garment of too fine cloth 
for a monk's habit, did it not come from a prince;" 
gives an account of the success of Staupitz in 
collecting relics along the cities of the Rhine; 
and explains why Luther is not yet prepared to 
publish his notes on the Psalms. 

We have now reached the year 1517, so cele- 
brated as the one from which the great Reforma- 
tion of the sixteenth century takes its date. But 
there are yet ten months to the 31st of October, 
the day on which Luther posted up his theses 
against Tetzel. We cannot do better than follow 
him through this brief period in his correspond- 



M. 33.] 



IN WITTENBERG. 



189 



ence. January 27th, lie writes to his old ac- 
quaintance and colleague Scheurl, a jurist, then 
at Niirenberg, acknowledging the receipt of his 
letter, which is a to me," he says, "most pleasant 
and yet most sad. But why do you wrinkle 
your brow ? For what could you write more 
pleasant than the merited eulogy of our reverend 
father, the vicar, or, rather, Christ in him ? No- 
thing more grateful to me could be said than that 
the word of Christ [through Staupitz] is preached, 
heard, received ; nay, rather lived and felt and 
understood. On the other side, you could write 
nothing more bitter than the courting of my 
friendship and the honouring me with so many 
vain titles." And in this strain of unaffected 
modesty the whole letter is written. 

In a letter to Lange, dated March 1, after 
mentioning that he sends Didymus, "who is 
still ignorant of the usages of the order," to 
Erfurt, and that he is about to publish his 
translation and exposition of the Penitential 
Psalms, he proceeds to say : " I am reading our 
Erasmus, and my esteem for him groweth less 
every day. . . . With him, what is of man pre- 
vaileth over what is of God. Though I am loth 
to judge him, I must admonish you not to read 
his works ; or, rather, not to receive all he saith 
without examination. These are dangerous times, 
and I perceive that a man is not to be esteemed 
truly wise because he understandeth Greek and 
Hebrew; seeing that St. Jerome, with his five 
languages, did not match Augustine with one — 
though to Erasmus it may seem otherwise. . . , 



190 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1517. 



This opinion of him I keep hid, lest I should 
strengthen the opposition of his enemies, [the 
monks and priests.] Perhaps the Lord, in due 
time, will give him understanding. Farewell. 
Salute the fathers, the masters and the reader ; 
and inquire whether Dr. Jodocus [Truttvetter] 
will reply to me." 

In two notes to Spalatin, (April 3d and 9th,) 
Luther begs a stipend for a poor student; and, in 
reply to a previous request, recommends the read- 
ing of certain works of Augustine, Ambrose and 
Cyprian. On the 6th of May, he writes again to 
Scheurl, as follows : " First, I thank you, most 
excellent man, for the present of the treatises of 
Staupitz, but lament that my trifles should be 
spread among you by the reverend father. They 
were not written for your delicate and polite 
Nurembergers, but for the rude Saxons. . . . 
Upon your requesting me to write familiarly to 
Eck, I wrote as carefully as I could. . . . The 
propositions hereunto joined, I send to you, and 
through you to master Wenceslaus [Link,] and to 
any others who are entertained with such things. 
They are not the paradoxes of Cicero, [who 
wrote a book under this title,] but of our Carl- 
stadt, or rather of St. Augustine. These para- 
doxes will expose the carelessness or ignorance 
of all those that looked upon them as more paradox 
than orthodox."* 

The next succeeding letter, giving a provost 



* These propositions, in connection with those of Feldkirk, men- 
tioned above, led to the disputation which, in the following year, 
ensued at Leipsic between Eck and the Wittenberg theologians. 



M. 33.] 



IN WITTENBERG. 



191 



instructions how to treat a fallen monk, may be 
passed over. May 15, Luther sends a few lines 
to Lange, in which he says, u The reverend vicar 
writeth that he shall soon return to us. Our theo- 
logy and St. Augustine go on prosperously by 
God's help, and reign in our university. Aristotle 
is sinking by little and little, and verging toward 
a fall from which he will never more rise. The 
scholastic lectures have wonderfully lost their 
savour; and no one can expect to have hearers, 
unless he consent to lecture on the Bible, or on 
St. Augustine, or some writer which has church 
authority." Thus completely had Luther revolu- 
tionized the university, and given a new direction 
to its studies. 

Omitting two unimportant letters to Lange, we 
come to the one bearing date September 4, in 
which he says, " I send you by master Otto, my 
propositions [against the scholastic theology,] 
and my exposition of the ten commandments. . . . 
I wait with much, with very great, with stupen- 
dous anxiety, to learn what you think of these 
paradoxes of mine. I suppose that to your theo- 
logians these paradoxes will appear heterodox; 
though to us they cannot be otherwise than ortho- 
dox. Let me know as quick as you can ; and 
say, in my name, to my masters and reverend 
fathers of the theological faculty and others, that 
I am fully prepared to come and discuss these 
subjects with them, either in the university or 
in the monastery. Let them not suppose that I 
wish to whisper these things in a corner, if our 
university is still so insignificant as to seem to be 



192 LIFE OF LUTHER. [1517. 

a corner." How evidently are things tending to 
a crisis ! 

On the 11th of the same month, he wrote a let- 
ter to Scheurl, the last from which we shall quote, 
the three which remain being but casual notes. 
It well illustrates what is indeed everywhere ob- 
vious, how perfectly Luther adapted himself in 
tone and manner to the various characters of his 
correspondents. He writes thus : " Although, 
my dearest Christopher, I have no occasion to 
write to you sufficient to justify me in writing to 
such a man, yet this is a sufficient one for me, 
namely, the desire to write to a friend, (setting 
aside all the titles and dignities with which you 
are adorned,) to a friend who is pure and most 
upright and urbane, and, what is most to the 
point, lately known and acquired. If silence is 
ever to be esteemed a fault, the silence of friend 
toward friend is particularly so, since playful- 
ness and trifles, not less than weighty matters 
strengthen, not to say perfect, friendship. St. 
Jerome exacted this of his friend, that he should 
write and inform him that he had nothing to write. 
Thus I determined to write trifles rather than to 
be silent toward a friend. But what will that 
brother Martin, falsely called the theologian, ever 
write besides trifles ? — who, amid the creaking 
and pell-mell of syllogisms, hath made no profi- 
ciency in polite literature ; or, if he ever had 
any taste of learning and eloquence, it hath been 
kept back in a state of stammering infancy by 
long practice and use in that other style of 
writing. But my preface is long enough, and 



M. 33.] 



IN WITTENBERG. 



193 



too long, if I am not to write a volume instead 
of a letter, that is, doubly to unbend in trifles and 
nonsense, when to do it once is more than enough 
for a theologian. The aim of my letter is to let 
you know how high an opinion I have formed of 

you and of your fidelity But it cometh to 

mind that you sent, by Ulrieh Pindar, the small 
treatises of our reverend father the vicar, about 
two florins' worth, a part whereof I have sold, 
and a part given away to good friends of the re- 
verend father. The money received I have given 
to the poor, as you required, that is, to myself 
and the brethren, for I could find no one poorer 
than myself. ... I send you my propositions, or 
paradoxes, or heterodoxies, as many regard them. 
You can show them to our learned and ingenious 
Eck, that I may know what he thinketh of them." 

We have now concluded what has generally 
been treated as an almost unknown period of 
Luther's life, and what most biographers have de- 
spatched in a few pages. Henceforth, the career 
of the great Reformer is of the most public cha- 
racter, attracting the attention of the religious 
world more than that of any other individual in 
Christendom. 




17 



194 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1517. 



PART II. 

FROM THE PUBLISHING OF THE THESES IN 1517, TO THE 
DEATH OF LUTHER IN 1546. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE OPENING OF THE REFORMATION IN 1517, TILL THE TIME 
OF THE LEIPSIC DISPUTATION IN 1518. 

Section I. — Indulgences. 

HOUGH much yet 
remained for Luther 
to learn, and many 
and great changes 
in his opinions were 
yet to take place, 
we may consider the 
ground-work of his 
character as having 
been already firmly 
laid. In tracing his 
internal history, and searching out all the influ- 
ences which the social and religious institutions 
of his times exerted upon him in the formation 
of his character, we have incidentally brought 
before us many scenes which strikingly illustrate 
the fallen and corrupt state of the church. To 
this, in its contrariety to the religious character 
and aspirations of Luther, as represented in the 




M. 33.] 



INDULGENCES. 



195 



foregoing statements, it is now necessary to direct 
particular attention. The reformer stands before 
us in all his leading peculiarities. It would be 
well as distinctly to see the church in all those 
deformities which called so loudly for a reforma- 
tion. The limits of this work, however, make it 
necessary to confine our attention to that class 
of abuses which the preceding account has not 
exhibited, — the abuses practised under the name 

Of INDULGENCES. 

The tendency of the Catholic church to de- 
grade religion from its high spiritual character 
to a mere round of outward forms and ceremo- 
nies, reached its height in the practical workings 
of the system of confessions, penances and indul- 
gences. As the most marked peculiarities of Lu- 
ther's reform consisted in making every thing in 
religion depend on Christ, rather than on human 
mediators, whether on earth or in heaven; and 
our connection with Christ to depend on the 
spiritual affections of each individual's heart, 
rather than on outward rites and ecclesiastical 
relations, it was perfectly natural that a colli- 
sion should take place just where it did, namely, 
at those points of the two opposite systems which 
related to the removal of sin. In the one system, 
the agent was the church ; in the other, it was 
Christ. In the one, the sinner was to be re- 
formed by penances, from which he might pur- 
chase release ; in the other, he was to exercise 
godly sorrow for sin and faith in Christ. The 
one was external and sacramental ; the other was 
internal and spiritual. 



196 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1517. 



How could such a perversion of the New Tes- 
tament doctrine of repentance and remission of 
sin ever make its way into a nominally Chris- 
tian community? To this inquiry there is a de- 
cisive historical reply; but the process is long, 
and the answer complicated. Like the forma- 
tion of a coral island, the perversion was one of 
gradual accumulation. It had small beginnings, 
and went on for fifteen centuries, keeping even 
pace with the intellectual and moral character 
of the age. 

First, outward mortifications were injudiciously, 
but with good intentions, imposed by the church 
upon members under ecclesiastical censure, as 
signs of repentance. Next, the priest enjoined 
similar things, privately, upon those members 
who, in consequence of certain sins, were sup- 
posed to be unprepared for the communion. Then 
the priest, who had already assumed a false posi- 
tion in the church, as mediator between God and 
his people, became lord of the individual con- 
science, examined every one before the commu- 
nion, decided, as an infallible judge, upon the 
exact amount of each one's sin, and affixed a 
corresponding penance. Repentance itself, in- 
* stead of being regarded as a duty always to be 
performed, was made a part of an ordinance of 
only periodical recurrence. At those stated times, 
the individual was to feel contrition, to confess to 
the priest, and to make satisfaction by submitting 
to the penances imposed. The first of these three 
parts of the ordinance, namely, contrition, was 
lightly passed over. The second, the confession, 



M. 83.] 



INDULGENCES. 



197 



was accepted on condition of its being full and 
complete. The third, satisfaction, was to be at- 
tended to afterward ; and with reference to this, 
too, absolution was conditionally pronounced by 
the priest, and the penitent was then admitted 
to the communion. In theory, those three suc- 
cessive acts must be faithfully performed by the 
penitent, or the absolution was of no efficacy. 
But how was one to know that his penitence was 
sufficient ? How would he be sure that no indi- 
vidual sin was omitted in the confession ? Why 
should absolution be pronounced before the con- 
ditions were all fulfilled, before satisfaction was 
known to be made ? 

These were the questions which tortured the 
mind of Luther when he was a conscientious 
monk. The theological objections to the whole 
system are, that the third part is without foun- 
dation, a mere human invention ; that the second 
is in no sense necessary, and arose from a false 
interpretation of two or three passages of Scrip- 
ture ; is founded on an absurd view of the nature 
of sin, as a measurable quantity, and is, more- 
over, utterly impracticable, as no mortal has the 
means of searching the heart and ascertaining 
the precise amount of a man's sins. The first 
part is the only one which has any value or au- 
thority, and this is perverted by being so far 
limited to a particular time and place. But the 
worst of all is, that the practice fell far short of 
the theory, miserable as that was, and contrition, 
the only shadow of a virtue that remained, was 
just the part which the poor ignorant people least 

17* 



198 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1517. 



regarded. Luther attacked the practice; his op- 
ponents defended the theory, and there the mat- 
ter stands to this day. 

The theory of the treasure of the church, con- 
sisting of the superabundant merits of Christ and 
of his followers, especially the martyrs, on which 
the Bishop of Rome could make drafts at plea- 
sure, was a mere scholastic invention, made at a 
late period, for the purpose of propping up a 
system which had long existed in practice. On 
this there was no agreement among the scho- 
lastic theologians ; Alexander of Hales maintain- 
ing one view, Albert the Great another, and Tho- 
mas Aquinas a third. Luther did not fail to take 
advantage of this circumstance, and triumphantly 
maintained, that in attacking these modern indi- 
vidual opinions, he by no means attacked the 
doctrines of the ancient universal church. 

Indulgences relate only to the third part of the 
sacrament of penitence, and consist in substitut- 
ing, in the place of satisfaction, or the endurance 
of the penance imposed by the priest, pilgrimages 
to sacred places, crusades against the infidels, or 
pecuniary contributions for certain religious pur- 
poses. The last were, in theory, a substitute for 
the others, or for ecclesiastical penalties ; but, in 
practice, a tax for sins. Indeed, it is said, that 
the modern system of taxation is borrowed from 
the church practice. 

Plenary indulgence could proceed only from the 
pope, and was granted to those who went on a pil- 
grimage to the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem. The 
indulgences given by archbishops and bishops 



M. 33.] 



INDULGENCES. 



199 



were restricted to their own dioceses, and could 
not extend beyond forty days. When the cru- 
sades had lost their novelty, pilgrimages to Rome 
were accepted as a substitute. There, at certain 
sacred places, were stations for prayer, which were 
resorted to by pilgrims. Most of all were indul- 
gences given at St. Peter's, on Christmas eve. 

As Boniface VIII. happened to be elected 
on such an occasion, he appointed a jubilee in 
1300, after the manner of the old Roman secular 
games, and promised plenary indulgence to all 
who should daily visit St. Peter's and St. Paul's 
for thirty successive days. Strangers who came 
to Rome as pilgrims were required to spend but 
half that length of time in visiting those places. 
The income of that single jubilee has been esti- 
mated at fifteen millions of florins. Hence, Lu- 
ther said, it was " truly a golden year." Because 
men could not live long enough to see the close 
of another century, Clement VI. appointed an- 
other jubilee, to take place at the end of fifty 
years, and added the Lateran church as a third 
station or place of sacred resort. Even this period, 
one has observed, seemed an eternity to Urban VI. 
He, therefore, caused the next to be held after 
thirty-three years, the period of the Saviour's 
life, and appointed St. Mary Maggiore as a fourth 
place of pilgrimage. These four churches had 
each a golden door, opened only on the year of 
jubilee. The money, which the pilgrims must 
not forget, was received by priests at these four 
churches, and afterward at three others also. 
Just before the year of jubilee, preachers of ju- 



200 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1517. 



bilee and of indulgence were sent into various 
countries, calling the attention of the people to 
the approaching year of grace. In 1400, the 
King of France prohibited his subjects from visit- 
ing Rome at the jubilee. In 1450, the Duke of 
Bavaria did the same, the council of Basle hav- 
ing passed a decree against the practice. This 
last year of jubilee seems not to have been so 
profitable to the successor of St. Peter as the 
preceding had been, for after it had passed, he 
sent a legate, Nicholas of Cusa, into all the dio- 
ceses of Germany, to receive the change from 
those who had not found it convenient to visit 
Borne ! 

But it was found that money for building and 
repairing churches and bridges could be most con- 
veniently raised by selling indulgences. Thomas 
Aquinas had taught that indulgences could be 
given in consideration of any act performed for 
the glory of God and the good of the church, 
" such as building of churches and bridges, per- 
forming pilgrimages and giving alms." In 1319, 
John XXII. granted forty days' indulgence to 
those who should aid in building a bridge across 
the Elbe at Dresden. In 1484, the papal legate 
promised the same to all who should contribute 
toward rebuilding a church destroyed by fire at 
Freiberg, in Saxony, and a hundred days to 
those who should do so for another church in 
the same city. In 1491, Innocent VIII. granted 
to the inhabitants of Saxony a dispensation 
from the quarterly fasts for a period of twenty 
years, on condition that each person would pay 



JE. 33.] 



INDULGENCES. 



201 



the twentieth part of a Romish florin annually 
toward building a bridge and chapel at Torgau, 
and the collegiate church at Freiberg. One-fourth, 
however, of the whole sum was to go to Rome, 
for building St. Peter's. This ordinance was re- 
sisted by the faculty of law in Leipsic, and the 
Bishop of Meissen refused to publish the bull in 
his see. 

In 1496, Alexander YI. endeavoured to allay 
the opposition, by promising that when the twenty 
years were expired, this kind of indulgences should 
not be repeated in Saxony. But his successor, 
Julius II., paid no regard to that promise, for in 
1509, the year before Luther went to Rome, he 
revived the indulgences for twenty years there- 
after. In 1512, the year of Luther's doctorate, 
when he took the oath by which he felt himself 
authorized to oppose Tetzel's doctrines, Julius 
enlarged and extended the system of indulgences 
in an unheard-of manner, in order to prosecute 
the enterprise in which he had been engaged six 
years, of erecting the magnificent structure of 
St. Peter's. Leo X. followed in his steps, and in 
1514, 1515, and, most of all, in 1516, sent his 
agents into Germany, to sell indulgences for this 
purpose. 

At this point, an extraordinary character pre- 
sents himself, to whom we have before alluded, 
and whose name is, for all time, so fatally con- 
nected with Luther's that it cannot be passed 
over in silence. It is Tetzel, the notorious 
preacher and vender of indulgences. Born in 
Leipsic, not far from 1460, he studied in. the 



202 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1517. 



gymnasium of his native city, and then entered 
the university in 1482, one year before Luther 
was born. After a protracted course of study, 
particularly under the celebrated Professor Wim- 
pina, he took his degree in 1487, and ranked as 
the sixth student in a class of fifty-five. As he 
excelled in oratory, his friends were surprised at 
his entering, two years afterward, the Dominican 
monastery, then called the Paulinum, and now 
known as a university building under that name. 
He was soon made priest, and was sent to Zwickau, 
where, by his ready and showy eloquence, he ac- 
quired considerable popularity as a preacher. But 
here, also, he furnished the first proof of his worth- 
less character. 

On a certain day, he proposed to be the sexton s 
guest, who excused himself, saying, he was too 
poor to furnish suitable entertainment for so dis- 
tinguished a man. "No matter," was the ready 
reply, "we will easily provide ourselves with the 
money. Look at the calendar, and see what 
saint's-day it is to-morrow." 

It happened to be the day of Juvenal, and the 
sexton regretted that the saint was so little known. 
" We will make him known," said Tetzel. " To- 
morrow, ring the church-bell, as at all high festi- 
vals, and we will hold high mass." His orders 
were obeyed, and the mass was accordingly held. 

When the ceremony was ended, Tetzel ascended 
the pulpit, ana said, " Dear people, I have some- 
thing to say unto you. If I should withhold it, 
your salvation would be in peril. You know, 
we .have long prayed to one saint and another, 



;E. 33. J 



INDULGENCES. 



203 



but they have become old, and are tired of attend- 
ing to us and aiding us. To-day is the festival of 
Juvenal, and though he hath not yet been known 
to you, it is all the better. He is a new saint, 
and will hear us the more patiently. Juvenal 
was a holy martyr, who shed his innocent blood 
for the truth. If you would enjoy the benefit 
of his innocence, lay something, each one of you, 
upon the altar, on this day of high mass. You, 
that are noble and rich, go forward and give to 
the rest a good example." He received the col- 
lection, placed a part of it upon the altar, and took 
the remainder himself, and said with a smile to the 
sexton, "Now, we have enough for our evening 
cups." Such is the account of the old Zwickau 
Chronicle, and it can hardly be supposed to be a 
pure fiction. 

In 1502, he was selected as papal agent and 
preacher, offering indulgences for the jubilee that 
had just passed, to the multitudes in Ntirenberg, 
Leipsic, Magdeburg, and other German cities who 
did not visit Rome. Next, we find him on the 
Vistula, similarly employed, and raising money 
for a crusade by the Teutonic Knights against the 
Russians and Tartars. From 1507 to 1513, he 
was itinerating again in the cities and towns of 
Saxony. For two years he made Annaberg, a 
new mining town considerably to the south of 
Leipsic, his head-quarters. "The surrounding 
mountains," said he, "would be turned into sil- 
ver, if the people would only purchase indul- 
gences." 

In the summer of 1510, while in Annaberg, at 



204 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1517. 



St. Anne's, with the red cross raised, as usual, be- 
fore the altar, he said : " Three days more, and the 
cross will be taken down and the door of heaven 
closed." Never again would the time return when 
eternal life and forgiveness of sins would be had 
so cheap, nor would the liberality of the pope to 
Germany ever be so great again ! " Now," said 
he, " is the accepted time, now is the day of sal- 
vation." 

At Gorlitz, where the city council wished to 
raise money for indulgences to put a copper-roof 
upon the principal church, Tetzel was employed, 
and was aided by the parish preacher, the peni- 
tentiary priests, the confessors, the rector of the 
school and his assistants, and the Franciscan 
monks, and they succeeded in collecting forty- 
five thousand rix dollars ! 

Of the many anecdotes recorded of him, only one 
more can find a place here. Whether true or not, it 
is perfectly characteristic. Wishing, on a certain 
occasion, to quicken the devotions of the people, he 
promised to show them, the next day, a feather 
which the devil plucked from the wing of the arch- 
angel Michael. But, during the night, some rogues 
made their way into his room, found the box of 
relics, took out the feather and put some coals in its 
place. Next morning he proceeded to the church 
with his box, without having opened it, and spoke 
at large of the virtues of this celestial feather, 
and, opening the box, behold there was nothing 
but some black coals! Not at all disconcerted, 
he exclaimed, "No marvel that, with such a trea- 
sure of relics, I have chanced to take the wrong 



,E. 33.] 



INDULGENCES. 



205 



box," and went right on to explain the value of 
these coals, which were the remains of the burnt 
body of St. Laurentius ! Nothing better illustrates 
the childish character and spirit of those times 
than such original anecdotes, whether true or false. 

Tetzel afterward went to Innspruck, where he 
was detected in the grossest immorality and lewd- 
ness, and at the intercession of powerful friends, 
instead of being enclosed in a sack and cast into 
the river, according to the sentence passed against 
him, was only imprisoned. 

Before we proceed further with our narrative, 
we must introduce another new personage, though 
of a very different order, — Albert, the accomplished 
but worldly and ambitious Archbishop of Mainz, 
a young prince now twenty-eight years old. He 
was the youngest brother of Joachim I., Elector 
of Brandenburg, (Prussia.) He had been care- 
fully educated under Eitelwolf von Stein, an ar- 
dent lover of classical literature, and one of the 
founders of the Frankfurt University on the Oder. 
The young prince attached himself to the liberal 
party, and favoured the cause of Reuchlin, Eras- 
mus and Von Hutten. Being destined for the 
church, he was, while a boy, made canon at 
Magdeburg, Mainz and Treves. At the age of 
twenty-four, he was made Archbishop of Magde- 
burg, and ten days later, Administrator of Hal- 
berstadt, and, in five months from that time, 
Archbishop and Elector of Mainz, thus holding, 
at the same time, three of the large and wealthy 
sees of Germany. For the see of Magdeburg, he 
had obtained from Rome the pallium, (the arch 

is 



206 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1517. 



bishop's badge of office,) at great expense. He 
was not sufficiently in funds to procure, at his 
own expense, another for the see of Mainz, and 
yet, at his election, it was expressly stipulated 
that he, and not the people, should be at that ex- 
pense. Albert being the third archbishop elected 
at Mainz within a period of eight years, the see, 
if it paid for his pallium thirty thousand florins, 
the usual sum given, would, during that short pe- 
riod, be at the enormous expense of ninety thou- 
sand florins for that white strip of cloth.* Albert 
was obliged to borrow the money of Jacob Fug- 
ger, the rich broker, the Rothschild of Augsburg. 
To get out of his pecuniary embarrassments, he 
applied to the pope for the appointment of com- 
missary of indulgences in his own three dioceses 
and in the Mark of Brandenburg, for a period of 
three years. The appointment was given him on 
the condition that he was to retain half of all the 
money that should be collected, and pay the re- 
mainder to the pope, as usual, for building St. 
Peter's. The appointment was afterward con- 
firmed and extended. 

Meanwhile Tetzel had got released from prison, 
with the understanding that he should proceed to 
Rome and obtain absolution from the pope. He 
went by way of Mainz, and desired Albert to use 
his good offices in recommending him to the papal 
favour, promising his services in turn, if success- 
ful, in raising the thirty thousand florins. With 



* It was made of lamb's wool, spun and woven by nuns, and 
consecrated at the graves of the apostles Peter and Paul. 



M. 33.] 



INDULGENCES. 



207 



a letter of recommendation from the archbishop, 
he went to Rome and applied to Leo, who was 
not very nice in matters of morality, and not only 
obtained absolution, but was made sub-commis- 
sary for disposing of indulgences under Arcim- 
boldi, general commissary for Germany. In 
April, 1516, Tetzel was in Wurzen practising his 
old art, to which most of his public life was de- 
voted, and this was the time that Luther and 
Staupitz came in near contact with him, when 
they were at Grimma. Arcimboldi resigning his 
office near the end of the same year, Albert was 
raised to the post of nuncio and general commis- 
sary; and Tetzel went immediately to Halle, the 
favourite residence of Albert, and entered into 
his service. Of this last connection, Luther was 
ignorant; and very innocently wrote to Albert, 
as his ecclesiastical superior, requesting him to 
put a stop to the shameful traffic ! 

In the Archbishop Albert, and in Pope Leo, 
Luther found himself disappointed even more 
than in Erasmus. They were all enlightened and 
liberal men, but their interest overruled their bet- 
ter judgment, and they all became the personal 
enemies of the reformer, whom they respected 
and feared; and whom, in the main points in 
question, they knew to be in the right. 

It was about the beginning of the year 1517 
that Tetzel entered the service of Albert, and 
well did he redeem the pledge given when on his 
way to Home; for, during the year, he succeeded 
in collecting one hundred thousand florins, in 
nominal value sixty-two thousand five hundred 



208 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1517. 



dollars, but in real value vastly more. In the 
Saxon territories, Tetzel was not very popular. 
The Saxon house was, moreover, jealous of the 
house of Brandenburg, and did not care to have 
their lands drained to fill Albert's coffers. Tetzel, 
therefore, found the best reception either in Al- 
bert's territories, the sees of Magdeburg and 
Halberstadt, or in those of his brother, Joachim 
of Brandenburg. From February to June, we 
find him at Halle, (which belonged to the diocese 
of Magdeburg,) at Annaberg, and once at Leipsic. 
In September, he went north to Berlin, was a 
short time at Zerbst, and finally came to Juter- 
boch, in a detached district of Magdeburg, about 
eighteen miles to the north-east of Wittenberg, 
and there he was the means of calling out Luther. 
The house of a certain Tupitz, in which Tetzel 
then lodged, is still shown to visitors. 

It was reported to Luther that Tetzel made the 
following declarations in his sermons, viz: That 
he had such grace and power from the pope, that 
though one had corrupted the Holy Virgin Mary, 
the mother of God, he could grant forgiveness — 
provided the individual should put into the box 
the proper amount of money; that the red cross 
of indulgence, with the papal coat of arms, when 
erected in the church, had as much efficacy as the 
cross of Christ; that, if St. Peter were present, 
he could not have greater grace and power than 
he himself had; that he would not divide with 
St. Peter in heaven, for he had redeemed more 
souls with his indulgences than Peter had with 
his preaching ; that when one puts money into the 



m. 33.] 



INDULGENCES. 



209 



box for a soul in purgatory, such soul escaped to 
heaven as soon as the money tinkled in the box; 
that the grace of indulgences was the very grace 
by which a man was reconciled to God; and that 
if one obtained indulgences, or a certificate of 
indulgence, there was no need of contrition, nor 
sorrow, nor repentance. 

Some of these statements, particularly those 
more offensive to Papal than to Protestant ears, 
may be exaggerated. At any rate, Tetzel pro- 
cured two certificates from the clergy and authori- 
ties in Halle, where the first statement was said 
to have been made, testifying to the contrary. 
Those certificates were first discovered and pub- 
lished in 1844. But that the reports were for 
the most part true, is evident, not only from what 
Luther says, but from Tetzel's own words. In 
his published instructions to the priests, he said, 
" Let the people consider that Rome is here. God 
and St. Peter call you. Give your mind, then, to 
the obtaining of such great grace, both for the 
salvation of your own souls and those of your 
deceased friends. They that impede this work 
are thereby excommunicated by the pope, and are 
under the indignation of Almighty God, and of 
St. Peter and Paul." In his printed sermons he 
said, "Let your sheep [an ominous word] know 
that on these letters are imprinted and inscribed 
all the ministries of the suffering of Christ. For 
every mortal sin a man must needs endure seven 
years' penance, either in this life or in purgatory. 
But with these letters of pardon you can at one 
time, and for all cases, have plenary indulgence 

18* 



210 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1517. 



from all penalties due unto that time ; and, after- 
ward, throughout all your lives, whensoever you 
shall wish to confess, you can have a like remis- 
sion ; and, last of all, in the article of death, plenary 
indulgence from all penalties and sins." 

In order to be prepared to estimate rightly the 
work of Luther, one must understand not only 
what his character and views were, and what the 
corruptions and abuses of the church were, but 
also what others before his time had thought and 
said on the same subject. But not every kind of 
opposition which was made to the papal hierarchy 
can claim to be a reformation. A reformation, in 
the proper sense of the term, is not merely the 
reaction of reason and philosophy against stupidity 
and folly, as some modern rationalists wouldynave 
it ; nor of classical education and refinement against 
ignorance and barbarism, such as was manifested 
by many in Italy, France and Germany at the 
revival of learning; nor of civil hbefty^ancr national 
independence against the tyranny of a foreign 
ecclesiastic, for in this many German emperors, 
princes and statesmen were far from being defi- 
cient ; but it is the reaction of a pure and spiritual 
Christianity, resting solely on the Bible, against 
the degeneracy, corruption, false authority and 
traditions of the church of Rome ; a sort of Chris- 
tianized Boodhism, which had subjugated the 
masses of the people to an almost unheard-of 
superstition and spiritual despotism. 

To this monstrous system of abuses, men of 
profound piety and of great hearts had offered 



33.] 



INDULGENCES. 



211 



resistance in the form of religious and theological 
objections, long before the time of Luther. To 
say nothing of such men as Wiclif and Huss, out 
of Germany, or of the many in Germany who had 
uttered their unavailing lamentations and transient 
murmurs, we may mention three men, whose thea- 
tre of action was along the middle and lower 
Rhine, who were, theoretically, far in advance of 
Luther at the time of publishing his well-known 
theses; namely, John of Goch, whose public life 
covered the interval from 1450 to 1475; John of 
Wesel, professor of theology at Erfurt from the 
year 1440 to 1460, and then, for about twenty 
years, preacher at Mainz and Worms; and John 
Wessel, a disciple of Thomas a Kempis, and, from 
1451 to 1479, professor in Cologne, Paris and 
Heidelberg. What these men did, for about the 
last quarter of a century before Luther's birth, in 
undermining the foundations of the papal hierar- 
chy, was certainly not without its effect upon the 
community; preparing it for Luther's influence, 
though he himself was formed for his great enter- 
prise independently of them. 

The first of the three theologians here named, 
who regarded the Bible as the only authority in 
matters of religion, and Christ as the only media- 
tor and helper, treated, in his writings, largely of 
grace and works, and is even an abler and clearer 
writer on this subject than Luther. Of the 
last of the three, Luther himself says, "If I had 
formerly read his works, Luther might have 
appeared to his enemies as having derived every 
thing from Wessel, so perfectly is the spirit of 



212 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1517. 



both the same. This coincidence giveth me new 
joy and strength." 

The second, John of Wesel, took up the subject 
of indulgences in particular, and was more mature 
and more decided than Luther was at the com- 
mencement. The very title of his book, which 
was not "On Indulgences," but "Against Indul- 
gences," is indicative of his position. Among 
other things, he says : " We read the discourses 
of Christ, containing, perhaps, all that is neces- 
sary to salvation, but we find in them nothing 
touching indulgences. Afterward the apostles 
wrote epistles and preached, but in them there is 
no mention made of indulgences. Finally, the 
distinguished teachers Gregory of Nazianzum, Ba- 
sil, Athanasius, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Jerome, 
and Augustine wrote many works, approved by 
the church, and yet they contain nothing about 
indulgences." " That any priest, or even the pope, 
can give indulgences by which a man may be re- 
leased from all the punishments imposed by God, 
is not taught in the Scriptures." " Some say, and 
this is the common opinion, that Christ gave to 
the church the keys of jurisdiction, and that in- 
dulgences rest on this power. They say so, but 
do not prove it. Neither the Old Testament nor 
the New saith any thing about the keys of juris- 
diction. Jurisdiction, as it is now in the church, 
was brought in by men"." " One may affirm that 
indulgences are a pious deception of believers, 
and so many priests have said. They are a pious 
deception, because believers are thereby moved 
to make pilgrimages to holy places; to give 



M. 33.] COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



213 



alms for pious uses; to build churches; and to 
raise armies against the infidels. They believe 
they shall thereby be delivered from the punish- 
ment due to their sins, and from suffering in pur- 
gatory. In this they are deceived." 

Enough, perhaps, has been said to indicate what 
is important in the circumstances under which 
Luther entered publicly upon what may, without 
affectation, be called his "mission." 

Section II. — Luther's Collision with Tetzel, and the Publica- 
tion of the Ninety-jive Theses. 

For a year and a half before the controversy 
broke out between Luther and Tetzel, the former 
had directed his attention to the abuses practised 
in the sale of indulgences. His exposition of the 
decalogue, delivered as lectures, as early as 1516, 
and afterward published, may be referred to as 
evidence. A sermon against indulgences, as then 
dispensed, delivered July 17, 1517, in the pre- 
sence of the elector, who had, but little more than 
a year before, procured the right of granting in- 
dulgences in the very same church where the 
preacher now stood, was not much relished by the 
prince. When Luther perceived that half of the 
population of Wittenberg were resorting to Juter- 
bock and Zerbst, where Tetzel and his colleague 
Rauch were practising their arts upon the igno- 
rant populace, he warned his hearers, in a dis- 
course held in the little old cloister-chapel, against 
the deception. " It would be better," said he, " to 
give alms to the poor, according to the command of 



214 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1517. 



Christ, than to buy with money such uncertain grace. 
He that repenteth during all his life, and turneth 
to God with all his heart, receiveth heavenly grace, 
and the forgiveness of all his sins ; which Christ, by 
his sacrifice and blood, hath obtained for us, and 
offereth us without money, from pure grace." 

Meanwhile, Luther perceived that some of his 
congregation, who had purchased indulgences, 
relied upon their certificates, and consequently 
did not come to the confessional, nor seek ab- 
solution before the communion. He, therefore, 
refused to administer to them the supper, un- 
less they would first make to him confession of 
their sins, and submit to the penances he should 
impose. This they refused to do, and referred to 
their certificates of indulgence, in which they were 
pronounced absolved from the grossest crimes — 
not only past, but those yet to be committed ; and 
that without penitence or satisfaction. Luther 
adhered to his resolution; and said, to the great 
surprise and consternation of the individuals con- 
cerned, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise 
perish." Some of them went back to Tetzel, com- 
plained that Luther would not receive the certifi- 
cates, and demanded their money again, but to no 
purpose. Tetzel, who was also inquisitor, was 
thrown into a rage of passion ; and, in his sermons, 
poured out curses upon the heretics ; and, to give 
emphasis to his denunciations, he caused, at dif- 
ferent times, piles of fagots to be kindled in the 
public squares, as signals of what awaited the 
heretic who should dare utter a word against the 
papal indulgences. 



JE. 33. J COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



215 



There are three stages of the doctrine of indul- 
gences, which, in the case of Luther, must be dis- 
tinguished from each other. The first is that of 
the ancient church, in which indulgence is the 
mere relaxation or removal of ecclesiastical, that 
is, human penalties, in respect to penitents who 
confess their faults and feel contrition. The 
second is that which prevailed in the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries, when penance had become a 
sacrament; and the indulgence was a spiritual 
grace, securing the forgiveness of sin; but true 
repentance was a condition of pardon. The third 
was the same system, except that the condition 
of repentance was but little regarded, and in some 
cases declared not to be necessary; as in some of 
the later papal bulls, and in the instructions and 
public declarations of Tetzel. In the first of these, 
Luther was still a sincere believer. The third he 
openly assailed, without knowing that either Leo 
or Albert were implicated. In respect to the 
second, he spoke doubtfully, and by way of dis 
cussion, ready to adopt whatever should be proved 

Luther, in these circumstances, felt it his dut} 
to write to Albert, his metropolitan, as Archbishop 
of Magdeburg, and Jerome Scultet, Bishop of 
Brandenburg, to whose see Wittenberg belonged, 
informing them of the disorders and abuses against 
which he had already preached ; and calling upon 
them to interpose their episcopal and metropolitan 
authority, and put a stop to the evil. But Albert 
had good reasons for paying no regard to the 
request. Scultet replied, indeed, but timidly and 
unsatisfactorily. Luther then wrote to the Bishops 



216 LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1517. 



of Meissen and of Merseburg and of Naumburg, 
but with what effect is not known. None of the 
above-mentioned letters have been preserved. 

Perceiving that nothing was to result from the 
application he had made to his ecclesiastical supe- 
riors, he felt bound in conscience to perform his 
duty as preacher in the city parish, where he was 
assistant of Pontanus, and accordingly preached 
anew on the subject there. Nor was he content 
with his efforts to check the evil in a practical 
way before the common people, where it began, 
but he resolved to bring forward the subject of in- 
dulgences as a matter of public debate before the 
learned, and before the theologians as such. The 
Electoral Church, on account of its many sacred 
relics, and the indulgences which could be pro- 
cured there on certain days, attracted many pil- 
grims ; particularly on the first of November, the 
anniversary of the dedication, and All Saints' day. 
Luther took the occasion of that solemn celebra- 
tion for a disputation; and, on the day before,, viz. 
Saturday, October 31, at twelve o'clock, posted up, 
on the doors of that church, his ninety-five propo- 
sitions respecting the power of papal indulgences, 
inviting any and all persons to discuss the subject 
with him. 

These theses have a very remarkable character 
and history. They show that the mind of their 
author was drifting on a current in a direction of 
which he himself was hardly aware. An expres- 
sion of abject submission to the authority of the 
church and of the pope, — still a part of his reli- 
gion, — and then a startling declaration, or a sar- 



JE. 33.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



217 



casm that shocked the servile sons of the church 
and servants of the pope ; and, to finish the medley, 
some doubts, thrown out to elicit discussion — 
these are the three ingredients of propositions, 
which acted with the velocity of lightning, and 
threw all the centre of Europe into a ferment. 

Though designed only for the learned, and pro- 
posed only as a sketch of the topics for debate, 
they were translated and circulated by thousands 
among all classes. Luther, perceiving that an un- 
expected and unextinguishable fire was kindled in 
the popular mind, and that the propositions, by 
their abstruse, scholastic and querying, rather than 
afhrrnatory character, were ill adapted for the 
common people, published a sermon in the ver- 
nacular tongue, the substance of discourses pre- 
viously delivered to the people, in which he first 
struck upon that popular tone of plain and ener- 
getic eloquence for which he was ever afterward 
distinguished. From the latter part of this ser- 
mon, as better adapted than the theses to give 
a plain and simple view of Luther's opinions at 
that time, we shall here make a few extracts. 
After laying clown eleven propositions, he pro- 
ceeds to say: 

"12. We are told, indeed, that for the residue 
of the punishment, the sinner should be referred 
to purgatory, or to indulgences. But many other 
things are also said without reason or evidence. 

"13. It is a great error for one to think to 
make satisfaction for his sins, in that God always 
forgiveth gratuitously and from his boundless 
grace, requiring therefor nothing but honest liv- 

19 



218 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1517. 



ing. The church doth indeed require somewhat, 
[penance, as a sign of sorrow,] but it may and 
should mitigate its demands, and ought, moreover, 
never to lay upon men any thing too grievous and 
intolerable. 

a 14. Indulgence is granted unto weak and 
slothful Christians, that will not manfully exercise 
themselves in good works, or endure mortifications. 
For indulgences carry no one forward in godliness, 
but rather bear with and wink at his backward- 
ness. For this cause no one ought to speak 
against indulgences, nor ought any one to be per- 
suaded to them. 

"15. One would act much more safely, and do 
far better, to give purely for God's sake and the 
building of St. Peter, or unto any other object, 
than to take indulgences for it. For it is not safe 
to give, in such matters, moved by indulgences 
rather than by the love of God. 

"16. Far better is a deed of charity done to 
the poor than a tribute for building churches, or 
than indulgences granted for the same. For, as 
before said, one good deed performed is better than 
many omitted. Indulgence is a relaxing of the 
requirement of many good works; otherwise no 
indulgence would be given. . . . My will, desire, 
entreaty and counsel are, that no one obtain in- 
dulgences. Let loitering and drowsy Christians 
do after this manner; but do thou go thine own 
way. 

"17. Indulgences are not things required, or 
even recommended; but pertain to those things 
which are only permitted or allowed. There- 



M. 33.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



219 



fore it is not a work of obedience, nor meritorious, 
but a drawing away from obedience. Therefore, 
though we may not forbid men to obtain indulgence, 
we ought to dissuade all Christians therefrom, and 
exhort and move them to do those wwks and suf- 
fer those pains which are remitted in indulgence. 

"18. Whether souls be delivered from purgatory 
by indulgency or no, is more than I can tell ; but 
I do not hold to that opinion yet. Certain modern 
teachers hold and maintain it, but they cannot 
prove it; neither hath the church established it as 
true. It is therefore much safer that thou thyself 
shouldest pray and act for them. For this is more 
sure and certain. 

"19. On these questions I make no doubt. They 
are sufficiently settled in the Scriptures . You, there- 
fore, should not doubt, but let the scholastic teachers 
be scholastic teachers. All of them together can- 
not give authority to a doctrine with their opinions. 

"20. If some, to whose coffers such truth is not 
of advantage, shall cry out and call me a heretic, 
I shall little heed their clamour, inasmuch as it 
will be made only by those cloudy heads that 
have had no taste of the Bible, that have never 
studied the Christian doctrines, that have never 
understood their own teachers, but in their ragged 
and tattered opinions have gone well-nigh to de- 
cay. For had they understood them, they had 
known that no man is to be condemned until he 
has been heard and confuted." 

At a later period, Luther, looking back upon 
his first efforts at reform, speaks thus : " By these 
theses [then published anew] will be publicly set 



220 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1517. 



forth my shame, that is, my great weakness and 
ignorance, which, at first, made me begin the 
work with great fear and trembling. I was alone ; 
and plunged myself into the business without 
foresight; and now that I could not go back, I 
not only gave place to many weighty articles of 
the pope, but sincerely and earnestly reverenced 
him. . . . What and how my heart endured and 
suffered the first and second year; into what hu- 
mility, not false and feigned, but real, nay into 
what despondency I sunk, the unmolested actors 
of these peaceful times know little. ... I, who 
braved the danger alone, was not so easy, confi- 
dent and sure of my cause. I was then ignorant 
of much that I now, thank God, know. I only 
debated the matter, and was ready to be in- 
structed With great earnestness and vene- 
ration I held the church of the pope to be the 
true church." 

No one had appeared, at the time appointed, to 
debate with Luther on the subjects embraced in 
his theses. On the festival day, he had preached 
before the multitude, though with great modera- 
tion, on the subject of indulgences. A few days 
after, probably within a week, he published the 
sermon above mentioned. As there had been no 
free and extended discussion of these topics, and 
as his brief intimations in the theses were liable 
to be misunderstood, especially by the common 
people, for whom they were not designed, he 
wished to publish an extended explanation of his 
views, and for this purpose wrote his work enti- 
tled " Proofs or Solutions of the Theses." But 



M. 33.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



221 



his bishop objected to their publication, as we 
learn from the following letter to Spalatin, dated 
Nov. 1517: "Yesterday the Abbot of Lenin [a 
rich abbey situated nearly midway betAveen Wit- 
tenberg and Brandenburg] was here. In the name 
and in behalf of the Bishop of Brandenburg did 
he come, bringing a letter from him, and likewise 
saying to me, by our bishop's order, that he, 
the bishop, desired and entreated me to put off 
the publishing of my Proofs and other similar 
writings. He was sorely grieved that I had put 
forth the sermon on Indulgences, and desired that 
it should not be published again or sold any fur- 
ther. Overcome with modesty that so high a 
prelate should humble himself to send unto me 
such an abbot, I said on this behalf alone, 'Very 
well, I would rather obey than do miracles.' . . . 
Although, in his esteem, nothing heretical was to 
be founpl in those writings, but every thing was 
orthodox, and though he himself did condemn 
those indiscreet declarations (as they are called) 
on the power of indulgences, yet, to avoid offence, 
he thought it best to remain silent for a season 
and delay publishing." 

To J. Lange of Erfurt, he wrote under date 
of Nov. 11, 1517, sending at the same time a 
copy of his theses: "If your theologians should 
be offended at these, and say (as all the world 
doth of me) that I declare my opinions and im- 
pugn other men's rashly and arrogantly, . . . 
say to them, in my name, that I commend their 
ripe modesty and grave moderation, so that 
they reduce their principles to practice. . . . But 

19* 



222 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



1517. 



why do they not use moderation in their judg- 
ment of me ? Why do they not modestly wait 
for the issue of the controversy?" He signs 
himself, "Martinus Eleutherias, (freeman,) or 
rather servant and captive at Wittenberg." 

In a letter of the same date to Spalatin, he ac- 
knowledges the receipt of a piece of cloth, and 
thanks the prince for the present. 

In another letter of but five lines, written in 
November, to the same, he says, " To be short, 
I will do all that you ask in your letter. The 
bishop has made answer and released me from 
my promise. Only I do not know whether I can 
preach these three following days. Nevertheless 
I will see ; if not, Amsdorf can come to my aid." 

In these few words we see the busy and busi- 
ness-like man, who was beginning to attract that 
universal attention which was never afterward 
withdrawn from him. His relations to the elec- 
tor at this period are also apparent from his fa- 
miliar letters. " My theses," he writes in the 
same month again to Spalatin, "I did not wish 
to have fallen into the hands of our illustrious 
prince or any of his court, till after they had 
seen them that may find themselves touched 
therein, lest these persons should think that I, 
by the command or will of the elector, had sent 
them forth against the Bishop of Magdeburg, 
(Albert,) as I hear say many already imagine. 
But we can now swear that they were brought 
to the light without the knowledge of the Elec- 
tor Frederic. More at another time, for I am 
now very busy." In a postscript he says: "You 



M. 33.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



223 



said in your letter that the prince had promised 
me a garment. I would fain know to whose 
charge he has committed the business." This is 
not the same present mentioned in a previous 
letter. Luther recurs to the subject in another 
letter, addressed a few days after to the elector 
himself, in such a manner as to give us a peep 
into court life, as well as a view of the character 
of both the elector and of the reformer. "Most 
gracious lord and prince," he writes, "inasmuch 
as your grace formerly promised, through the Hirs- 
felder, to give me a new garment, I now beg leave 
to put you in mind of the same. But I must 
ask, as I did before, that if Pfeffinger is to fulfil 
the promise, he do it by deed, and not by soft 
words. He knoweth how to spice up fine dis- 
course, but that never maketh good cloth." 

After endeavouring to reconcile him to Stau- 
pitz, who had been misrepresented and maligned, 
Luther proceeds to say, " To give proof of my 
fidelity, and to render myself worthy of my 
court garment, I will say, that I have heard 
your grace intendeth after the present taxing to 
lay another and perhaps heavier one upon his 
subjects. If your grace will not despise a poor 
beggar's petition, I entreat you in God's name 
not to let that be done, for it grieveth me, as it 
doth many of your grace's friends, to learn that 
this last taxation hath derogated much from your 
good name." 

It is time to notice the various annoyances 
which Luther experienced in consequence of the 
publication of his theses, and the many petty 



224 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1517. 



strifes in which his enemies engaged with him. 
Here we shall see the reformer appearing in all 
the qualities of his mind and heart, profoundly 
sincere and honest, entirely religious and con- 
scientious, though still held in bondage to many 
errors and superstitions ; more and more deeply 
convinced of the justness and importance of his 
biblical views of theology and religion, and of 
the corruption of the church, of the ignorance 
and stupidity that reigned in the monasteries 
and the schools, and finally undeceived in re- 
spect to the character of Pope Leo, the Arch- 
bishop Albert, and other high dignitaries of the 
church. Sometimes we shall see him sighing 
over these evils ; sometimes reasoning with Her- 
culean strength in order to convince the wise 
and the good ; sometimes, when assailed by ma- 
lignant foes with the vilest arts, either indignant 
and blasting them as by a thunderbolt, or comi- 
cal and making them appear superlatively ridi- 
culous. 

Before the close of the year 1517, Tetzel sought 
to elevate himself to an equality with Luther by 
taking, at the University of Frankfurt on the 
Oder, the degree of doctor of divinity, and, on 
that occasion, he brought forward and defended 
a set of theses directed against those of Luther. 
Not only was he obliged to resort to Professor 
Wimpina, a distinguished man, formerly of Leip- 
sic, but now of Frankfurt, who was jealous of 
the fame of the Wittenberg theologians, to draw 
up those theses in tolerable Latin, but he had 
the mortification to be beaten in the argument 



JE. 34.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



225 



by a young student, by the name of Knipstrov. 
Though the latter, for so daring a crime, was 
confined in a monastic prison, he was afterward 
professor of theology and vice-chancellor of the 
University of Greifswald. 

At the close of the following spring, Tetzel pub- 
lished a reply to Luther's sermon on Indulgences, 
pointing out twenty alleged heretical doctrines^ 
in it. Luther did not let this ridiculous cry of 
heresy and menace of the flames pass unanswered. 
He said it would be more in keeping with the cha- 
racter and habits of Tetzel, if, instead of appeal- 
ing to " water and fire," he had appealed to " the 
juice of the grape and the flames over which fowls 
were roasted." After rebuking the levity with 
which a man, guilty of almost every crime named 
in the Decalogue, himself not fearing the fires 
of hell and eternal death, attempted to frighten 
Christian teachers, as though they were children, 
by means of fire and sword, he goes on to say, 
comically enough: "Inasmuch as this matter doth 
not pertain to faith and to salvation, nor is one 
of necessity or of command, and since these per- 
sons are so very godly and abundant in charity 
that they are eager to burn Christians for things 
indifferent and devoid of heresy, may my gra- 
cious God and Father forgive me, that, setting 
aside all honour, as a thing alien from you, I 
should bid defiance to my Baalites. Here am I 
at Wittenberg, Dr. Martin Luther, and if there 
be any inquisitor who thinketh he can eat iron 
and rend rocks, I hereby give him to understand 
that he shall have safe conduct, open doors, free 



226 LIFE OF LUTHER. [1518. 

lodgings and living to boot, at the expense of our 
excellent prince, Duke Frederic, the Elector of 
Saxony." 

Silvester Prierias, a monk of the same order 
with Tetzel, and master of the sacred palace or 
chief censor of books at Rome, replied to Lu- 
ther's theses as early as January, 1518, and con- 
sequently was the first writer who published a 
work against the doctrines of Luther. It was a 
dialogue, in which the positions of Luther con- 
stituted one part, and the replies of Prierias the 
other. The sole aim of this weak and supercil- 
ious production was to exalt the church of Rome, 
and to maintain the supremacy of the pope. 

The discussion which Luther had with the 
theologians, at the general meeting of his order 
at Heidelberg, in which he developed his views 
on the great questions of the day, was attend- 
ed with the happiest consequences. While his 
arguments were such that the aged men, who 
disliked them, could not answer them, he made 
converts to his doctrine among young men of 
the highest promise. To these belonged Bucer, 
afterward the reformer in Strassburg and in 
England, Brentz and Schnepf, the reformers of 
Suabia. 

With Eck also, with whom he had lived on 
terms of friendship, he was led into a controversy 
which ended in the Leipsic disputation. And, 
finally, he was obliged to defend himself against 
the Bishop of Rome. These remarks will enable 
the reader to understand without difficulty most 
of the letters of Luther, written during the 



M. 34.] COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 227 

period immediately following the publication of 
the theses. 

To Spalatin he writes this hasty note, under 
date of January 7, 1518: "The schedule, which 
you demand, my dear Spalatin, is not with me. 
I w T ill see whether it be in Wittenberg or no, and, 
if it be, will send it unto you. But I send you 
the late phantoms of Silvester [Prierias] from the 
city [of Rome,] which have just come to hand 
through Nuremberg. When you shall have read 
them, do your diligence to send them back to 
Wittenberg, that I may commune with my friends 
whether to answer them, or let them go unan- 
swered. I have no other but this one copy." 

On the 14th of the same month, he wrote to him 
another long letter, from which we take the fol- 
lowing : u Do not think it strange, my dear Spala- 
tin, that certain persons should declare that I was 
overcome while at a supper in Dresden. They 
say, and have long been used to say, whatsoever 
they please. I was verily at the house of Jerome 
Emser with Lange and the Dresden prior, having 
been not so much invited as forced to a supper. 
Though I thought myself among friends, speedily 
I found a snare was laid for me. There was a 
paltry master there, who had dipped a little into 
Aquinas, and thought himself wondrous wise. 
He, burning with anger at me, first entreated me 
kindly, but when a discussion arose, he inveighed 
against me bitterly and clamorously. In the mean 
season there was standing without the door a cer- 
tain mendicant friar, who listened unto all I said, 
(as I afterward learned,) and who declared he was 



228 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



in anguish of spirit, and could hardly keep from ' 
corning forth and spitting in my face, and calling 
me by every evil name ; so vexing was it to the 
poor man that I should confute that little master, 
the Thomist. This is the man that everywhere 
boasteth, even until now, that I was so beaten 
that I could not say a word either in Latin or in 
German. Because we spoke in Latin and German 
commingled, he gave out that I did not know a 
word of Latin." 

In another letter to the same, he gives his 
friend advice and instruction, as to the best way 
of prosecuting the study of the Bible; and in a 
third, dated February 15. 1518, he replies to in- 
quiries in respect to good works and indulgences. 
"As touching indulgences/' he remarks, "the mat- 
ter is still in dispute, and my propositions are 
drifting along in the waves of calumny. Two 
things, however. I dare say; the first unto you 
alone and my other friends, until the matter shall 
be known and come to the light, namely, that in- 
dulgences look to me to be nothing but a delusion, 
and of no profit, save to such as are drowsy and 
sluggish in the way of Christ. Albeit Carlstadt 
doth not hold the same opinion, I make no doubt 
he esteemeth them lightly. To pluck away this 
delusion, I, for the love of the truth, have cast 
myself into a dangerous labyrinth of disputation, 
and have stirred up against me a thousand cen- 
taurs. Secondly, .... I counsel you to buy no 
indulgences, till you can no longer find a poor 
neighbour to give the money to. I doubt 
he will bring upon himself wrath who neglecteth 



M. 34.] COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 229 

the poor and buyeth indulgences. But, God will- 
ing, you shall see more on this matter when the 
Proofs of my Propositions come out. To this 
measure am I forced by men more ferocious than 
ferocity itself, who, in all their discourses, pro- 
nounce me a heretic; and their wrath goeth to 
such a length that, for my sake, they arraign the 
University of Wittenberg, and stigmatize it as 
heretical. They are so ignorant of things, both 
divine and human, that it is a reproach to have a 
controversy with them ; and yet their ignorance 
giveth them incredible audacity, and a front of 
more than brass. . . . They clamorously give out 
that what I have in hand took its rise with our 
illustrious prince, out of enmity to the Archbishop 
of Magdeburg (and Mainz.) I pray you, there- 
fore, to consider what must be done, whether the 
matter should be laid before the prince or no. I 
cannot abide that he should be brought under 
suspicion for my sake ; and I shudder w r ith fear 
and horror at the thought of being the cause of 
dissension between such princes." 

To Dr. Scheurl, advocate in Nuremberg, he 
writes, March 5 : " I have received from you, most 
excellent and learned Christopher, two letters at 
the same time, one in Latin, the other in German, 
together with a gift from the famous Albert Diirer, 
(the painter,) and also my theses in Latin and in 
German. You marvel that I did not send you a 
copy. I make answer, that it was not my pur- 
pose nor will that they should be published, but 
that they should be examined by some persons in 
our own neighbourhood, and afterward, according 

20 



230 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



to their opinion, be condemned and abolished, or 
be approved and published. But they have been 
printed and spread abroad beyond all expectation, 
so that I repent of having sent forth this foetus, 
not because I am unwilling the common people 
should know the truth, for that is what I most 
desire, but the manner and form of it is ill adapted 
for the instruction of the people. Some things 
therein contained are to myself doubtful ; others I 
would have declared after a different and more 
positive sort, or left out, had I seen the end from 
the beginning. Though, from this manner and 
degree of their dispersion, I know what men 
think in respect of indulgences, nevertheless they 
do it secretly, for 'fear of the Jews.' I am, there- 
fore, constrained to prepare proofs and explanations 
of the theses, though the Bishop of Brandenburg, 
with whom I have taken counsel, being much 
troubled in this matter, hath caused me so long 
to delay the publishing of them. Nay, if the Lord 
give me opportunity, I desire to bring out, in Ger- 
man, a treatise on the power of indulgences, and 
thus to suppress those theses which are so dis- 
persed." 

March 21, 1518, he writes to Lange, in Erfurt; 
"Wonderfully do the indulgence-mongers fulmi- 
nate against me from the pulpit. Not content 
with the portentous names they have given unto 
me, they add threats, some prophesying that 
within two weeks, others that within one month, 
I shall assuredly be burned by the people. Against 
my theses they now set forth others, so that I 
fear they may burst for the greatness and vehe- 



M. 84.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



231 



mence of their anger. Finally, I am besought by 
everybody not to go to Heidelberg, lest I be de- 
spatched by fraud, if I cannot be by violence. 
But I shall fulfil my duty of obedience, [as a monk 
to attend the general meeting,] and shall journey 
on foot, and pass through Erfurt, if God permit. 
Albeit do not tarry for me, for I shall not set out 
till the 13th of April. Our prince, moved by 
great zeal for solid learning, hath, without our ask- 
ing, undertaken earnestly to defend me and Carl- 
staclt, and will not suffer me to be dragged to 
Rome, which torments my enemies here, who are 
not ignorant of his will toward me. 

" To the end that you may know the truth, if 
the report of the burning of Tetzel's theses should 
come to your ears, and that nothing, as is wont to 
be the case, may be added to the tale, I will cer- 
tify you of the matter. The students, holding in 
odium the old sophistical studies, and being in- 
clined to the Scriptures, and perhaps to me, when 
they had learned that a man, sent by Tetzel, the 
author, had come hither, went forthwith to him, 
to terrify him for having the audacity to bring 
such things hither. Some of them did buy a few 
copies, but others plucked away the eight hundred 
which remained and burnt them, having already 
given notice that, if any desired to see the funeral 
pile of Tetzel's theses burned, to be at the place 
at two o'clock. This was done without the know- 
ledge of the elector, of the academical senate, of 
the rector, or of any of us." 

In a letter to Egran, preacher at Zwickau, writ- 
ten March 24th, he says, " Some obelisks have of 



232 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



late been written against my theses by a man of 
true learning and of excellent parts, and, what 
grieveth me more, by one for whom I had not 
long ago conceived a warm friendship, Dr. John 
Eck, vice-chancellor of the University of Ingol- 
stadt, already a noted man and well known by his 
published works. Did I not know the devices of 
Satan, I should wonder what fury influenced him 
to break those new and pleasant bonds of friend- 
ship, without giving me any warning, or taking 
leave of me. . . . As for myself, I desired to 
swallow patiently this cake, worthy of Cerberus. 
But my friends compel me to reply, though I shall 
do it privately. Blessed be the Lord Jesus ! to 
him alone be glory. Confusion may deservedly 
cover us. Rejoice, my brother, rejoice, and be not 
terrified by those flying sheets, nor cease to teach 
as you have begun, but, like the palm in Cadiz, 
rise under the weight that is laid upon you. The 
more they rage, the more I go on. I leave for- 
mer things behind for them to bark at, and go on 
to those that are before, that they may have more 
to bark at." 

On the 31st of March, he writes to Staupitz : 
" Being very busy, my father in the Lord, I can 
write unto you but little. First, I firmly believe 
that with many my name is in ill odour. So much 
do the good men lay to my charge because I have 
condemned rosaries, crowns, psalteries, and other 
prayers, and indeed all good works. So St. Paul 
was accused of saying 'Let us do evil that good 
may come.' But I have followed the theology of 
Tauler and of that work [the German Theology] 



M. 34.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



233 



which you have lately caused to be printed by 
Aurifaber, and teach that men must put their trust 
in nothing else but Jesus Christ alone, neither in 
their prayers and merits, nor in their good works. 
For, not by our running, but by God showing 
mercy, are we saved. From such teachings do 
those men draw forth the- poison which you see 
them scatter abroad. But as I did not begin, 
so neither will 1 give over either for glory or for 
infamy." 

Several of the letters next succeeding relate to 
his journey to Heidelberg, where the monks of his 
order were to meet in convention. The story of 
the incidents connected with that occasion is best 
told by himself. From Coburg, nearly two-thirds 
of the distance, he wrote to Spalatin, April 15th: 
" From Pfeffinger I suppose you have learned all 
that we talked about, when I met him at the vil- 
lage of Judenbach, [a few miles before reaching 
Coburg.] Among other things, I rejoiced at this, 
that an opportunity was given unto me to make 
that rich man poorer by some shillings. For he 
paid not only for my dinner, but for that of two 
other companions. And now, if I could, I would 
make our prince's officer here at Coburg pay for 
us. But if he is not willing, still Ave shall live at 
the elector's cost. . . . All things go well with us, 
except that I sinned, I confess, in setting out on 
my journey on foot. But for this sin, as the con- 
trition is perfect, and a full penance hath been 
imposed and borne, there is no need of indulgence. 
I was very much wearied, [the distance was more 
than one hundred and forty miles,] and could not 

20*' 



234 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518 



get conveyed, and so there was abundance, enough 
and more than enough of contrition, penance and 
satisfaction. I was unknown to all, except as the 
presence of Pfeffinger made me known. But at 
Weissenfels, the parish priest, though a stranger 
to me, knew me and treated me with great kind- 
ness. He was a Wittenberg master." 

His next letter to the same is dated Wurzburg, 
April 19. "We at length arrived at Wurzburg 
on the 17th, and, on the evening of the same day, 
presented our letters to the illustrious prince [Bi- 
bra, the excellent Bishop of Wurzburg.] . . . The 
reverend bishop, on receiving them, called for me, 
communed with me, and desired to give me, at his 
own charges, another messenger to accompany me 
all the way to Heidelberg. But as I found here 
many of my order, and especially Lange, the 
Erfurt prior, I thanked the kind-hearted prince, 
saying it was not necessary to provide me with 
a messenger. I wished, moreover, to ride with 
them, being exhausted with fatigue. Only one 
thing did I ask of him, and that was a safe-con- 
duct, which I have just received. ... If some- 
thing more can be paid to my messenger Urban, 
I think he deserveth it ; for he was delayed in the 
journey on my account. I would bring this to pass 
if I could see our Hirsfeld. The man is worthy 
of it for his fidelity and honesty. Do you also 
plead his cause. I am poor, as I am bound to be, 
and therefore could give him but little." 

On his return to Wittenberg, he gave an account 
of the remainder of his journey, to Spalatin, May 
18th : "At length, by the favour of Christ, I have 



M. 34.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



235 



returned to my home, dear Spalatin, and arrived 
at Wittenberg the Sabbath after Ascension-day. 
Though I went on foot, I returned in a carriage. 
For I was compelled by my superiors to ride w T ith 
the Niirembergers toWurzburg; thence with the 
Erfurt brethren to that place; and from Erfurt 
with the brethren from Eisleben, who, at their own 
charges, and with their own horses, conveyed me 
to Wittenberg. I was quite well all the way, my 
food agreeing with me marvellously, so that some 
think I have grown more fat and corpulent. 

"The Count Palatine (at Heidelberg) and Sim- 
ler, and Hase, masters of the palace, received me 
with great honour. The count invited us, that 
is, Staupitz, Lange, now provincial vicar, and my- 
self, to his palace, w r here we rejoiced and were 
made merry in each other's company, eating and 
drinking and seeing all the adornments and wea- 
pons of war which beautify that regal and truly 
noble castle. Simler could not enough extol the 
letter of our prince given for me, saying, 6 Those 
are most precious credentials which you have.' 
Indeed, nothing of humanity was wanting. 

" The learned doctors willingly suffered my dis- 
putation, and disputed with me so courteously as 
to make themselves very dear to me. Although 
my theology seemed strange to them, they argued 
against it honourably and acutely ; save one young 
doctor, w r ho made the whole audience shout with 
laughter w T hen he said, 6 If the peasantry should 
hear that, they would stone thee to death.' 

" To the Erfurt doctors my theology was a bit- 
ter pill, especially to Jodocus of Eisenach. ... I 



236 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



had a conference with him, and made him to un- 
derstand at least as much as this, that he could 
never establish his own positions, nor confute 
mine. . . . With Doctor Usingen, as I rode with 
him, I laboured more than with all the rest, in 
order to convince him, but know not whether it 
had any effect.- I left him cogitating and won- 
dering." 

These two men, it will be recollected, were Lu- 
ther's principal teachers at the university. In a 
previous letter to Lange, he sent a friendly salu- 
tation not only to father Usingen, but to father 
Nathin, his former enemy, and the chief agent in 
producing the misunderstanding between Luther 
and the University of Erfurt. This magnanimity 
and love of brotherly concord are noble traits in 
the character of the bold and stern reformer. 

In the midst of all these cares and tumults, 
Luther was active in raising the literary charac- 
ter of the university. He at first introduced the 
study of the Bible ; next he endeavoured to ba- 
nish the scholastic philosophy. Now he was 
active in introducing the study of Hebrew and 
Greek, and promoting the Latin. He looked out 
new professors, laid new plans of study before 
the elector through Spalatin, and counteracted 
the parsimonious views of Pfeffinger, the financial 
minister of state. Leipsic, espousing warmly the 
cause of Tetzel and of the pope, was more than 
ever the jealous rival of Wittenberg. " Our stu- 
dies," says Luther, March 21, "are advanced so 
much that we expect soon to have lectures in both 
languages, [Latin and Greek,] or rather in three 



M. 34.] COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 237 

[by adding the Hebrew,] in Pliny, in mathematics, 
in Quintilian and some others of the best sort, 
giving up the puerile lectures on Peter of Spain, 
Tartaretus [of France] and Aristotle. The elector 
hath already signified his approval, and the council 
have the subject under consideration." 

On the 18th of May, he writes to Spalatin : " I 
hope and pray you will not be unmindful of our 
university, that is, that you will be zealous in 
establishing a Greek and a Hebrew professorship. 
I suppose you have seen the programme of lec- 
tures at Leipsic, our rival as ever. Many are 
there pompously announced which I do not be- 
lieve will ever be delivered." The measures here 
referred to led first to a negotiation with Mosel- 
lanus, and then, that failing, to the appointment 
of young Melancthon, as professor of Greek. 

On the 30th of May, 1518, Luther wrote two 
letters of great historical value, the one to Stau- 
pitz, the other to Leo X. ; the former giving an 
account of the gradual change his mind under- 
went on the subject of indulgences ; the other 
stating the rise, character and progress of the 
outward controversy. In the letter to Staupitz, 
he says : " I remember, reverend father, that 
among those most delightful and profitable con- 
versations of yours wherewith the Lord Jesus 
used wonderfully to comfort me, mention once 
happened to be made of the word repentance. Be- 
ing distressed for the consciences of many, by 
reason of the manner wherein those murderers of 
the conscience taught the duty of confession, by 
countless and intolerable precepts, I heard from 



238 



LIFE OF LUTHEK. 



[1518. 



you, as if by a voice from heaven, the declara- 
tion that 6 there is no true repentance, save that 
which beginneth with the love of righteousness 
and of God ; that what these men make the end 
and completion of repentance, is rather the be- 
ginning thereof.' Those words of yours stuck to 
me like a sharp arrow of a strong archer. I 
afterward compared them with those passages 
of Scripture which teach repentance, and how 
sweetly did they all play in and agree with this 
opinion ! Formerly there was in all the Bible 
scarcely a word more bitter to me ; now none 
sounds more sweetly or agreeably to my ears 
than the word repentance. At a later time, I 
learned, by the help of those scholars who made 
us acquainted with Greek and Hebrew, that the 
Greek word for repentance signified c thinking of 
a fault after it was done,' . . . and, as I proceeded 
farther in the knowledge of the Greek tongue, 1 
perceived that it also signified 'a change of mind/ 
. . . Being confirmed in these opinions, I made 
bold to consider those as false teachers who im- 
puted so much of repentance to [outward] works, 
making it of little account beyond certain satis- 
factions and scrupulous confessions. . . . When my 
mind was kindling into a blaze with these medi- 
tations, behold, all of a sudden, a new trumpet of 
indulgences and of pardons was sounded, or rather 
rung with a loud clangour in our ears, whereby 
we were not summoned to war, but .... these 
heralds proclaimed, with great pomp and in a man- 
ner unheard of before, not repentance, nor even 
the weakest part thereof, satisfactions, but the 



JE. 34.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



239 



remission of this weakest part. Moreover did 
they teach ungodly, false and heretical doctrines 
with such authority, (I should say, audacity,) that 
if any one muttered a word against it, he was 
straightway a heretic, devoted to the flames, and 
worthy of eternal malediction. Not able to sus- 
tain their fury, I determined to dissent from them 
modestly, and to call into doubt their opinions, 
standing upon the doctrine of all the teachers of 
the whole church, viz. that it is better that the 
satisfactions be performed than that they be re- 
mitted, that is, released by indulgence. Nor did 
any one ever teach otherwise. Thus I took up 
the disputation, that is, stirred up against my un- 
lucky head every thing, top, bottom and midst, so 
far as it was in the power of these persons, who 
are so zealous for money, or, as they will have it, 
for souls. These gentle creatures, resorting to 
base sleights, inasmuch as they could not dispute 
what I had said, set up the pretence that the 
power of the pope was impugned in my disputa- 
tions. This, reverend father, is the cause of my 
now coming unhappily before the people. I always 
wished rather to be in a corner, and would now 
much sooner look at the august spectacle of the 
great men of our age than become myself an ob- 
ject of the public gaze. But I see it is needful 
for the chick-weed to be with the pot-herbs, and 
the dark colour with the light, to set off the 
charm by contraries. I pray you, therefore, re- 
ceive these trifles of mine, and send them forward 
as speedily as may be to Leo X., that they may 
appear there as my defence against my malignant 



240 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



foes. Not that I wish to draw you into my perils. 
I desire that the perils be mine alone. Christ will 
know whether these things which I have said are 
his or mine. ... As to those threats, I have no- 
thing to reply to my friends but the words of 
Reuchlin, ' He that is poor hath nothing to fear, 
for he hath nothing to lose.' I have nothing, and 
I desire nothing. If I enjoyed any good name or 
honour, this they are now fast destroying. But 
one thing remains, that is, my frail body, already 
weak and decayed by constant sufferings. If, by 
the will of God, they should destroy this by vio- 
lence or fraud, why, they will only make me 
poorer by a few hours of my life. Enough for 
me is my sweet Redeemer and Saviour, the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and his praises will I sing as long as 
I live. If any one will not sing with me, what 
is that to me ? Let him bark, if he please, by 
himself. The Lord Jesus Christ preserve you 
evermore, my dearest father." 

The letter addressed to Leo, at the same time 
with the above, accompanying the Proofs and Ex- 
planations of the Theses, is important as deter- 
mining Luther's views of the papacy and of Leo 
at this period, views which he soon had occa- 
sion to change. "I have heard," says he, "the 
worst account, most blessed father, touching my- 
self, namely, that certain friends have made my 
name most odious to you and yours, as of one 
who was labouring to diminish the authority and 
power of the keys and of the supreme pontiff; 
and that I am called a heretic, an apostate, a 
traitor, and a thousand other ignominious names. 



M. 34.] COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 241 

These things shock and amaze me ; one thing 
only sustains me, a sense of innocence. But this 
is nothing new. Even here in my own country 
I am honoured with such tokens by these men 
of honour and truth, I mean these conscience- 
smitten men, who strive to heap their monstrous 
crimes upon me, and, by my ignominy, to cover 
their own. But, most blessed father, condescend 
to hear the whole matter from me, a child and 
rude though I be. The jubilee of apostolic in- 
dulgences began to be proclaimed here not long 
ago, and was carried on in such a sort, that the 
preachers thereof, employing the terror of your 
name, thought there were no bounds to their 
license, and presumed to teach openly things the 
most blasphemous and heretical, to the great 
scandal and contempt of ecclesiastical authority, 
as if the decretals touching the abuses practised 
by preachers of indulgences had nothing to do 
with them. Not satisfied with scattering their 
poison by their licentious tongues, they published 
tracts and dispersed them among the people, in 
which, to say nothing of the insatiable and unex- 
ampled avarice flowing forth at every letter and 
point, they repeated those blasphemous and here- 
tical declarations, and bound the confessors with 
an oath to enjoin the same most faithfully and 
earnestly upon the people. I speak nothing but 
the pure truth, which cannot be concealed from 
the light. The books themselves are extant, and 
they cannot deny these things. They have car- 
ried on their business with great effect, and 
with their false promises they have drained the 

2] 



242 LIFE OF LUTHER. [1518. 

purses of the people, and, as the prophet saith, 
6 plucked the flesh from their bones,' themselves 
the meanwhile faring most sumptuously. 

" To stay the public scandal, they have re- 
sorted to the terror of your name, to the menace 
of the flames, and to the ignominy of heresy. It 
is incredible how bent they are on using these 
weapons, wheresoever their opinions, even in 
the very least matters, are called in question. 
This, however, is not so much quenching public 
scandal as it is stirring up schisms and seditions 
by deeds of tyranny. At the same time, tales 
concerning the avarice of the priests, and detrac- 
tion in respect of the power of the keys and of 
the supreme pontiff, were going from mouth to 
mouth in the taverns, as the voice of the whole 
land giveth witness. I burned, I confess, with 
zeal for Christ, as it seemed to me, or with youth- 
ful heat, if any one please; but perceived that 
it did not belong to me to do or decide any thing 
in this matter. Accordingly, I admonished pri- 
vately a few of the dignitaries of our church. 
Some received what I said, some did ridicule ; 
some one thing, and some another ; for they were 
terrified by the use made of your name, and by 
the threat of the Inquisition. At length, when I 
saw I could do nothing else, I thought it best to 
arraign them gently, that is, to make their dogmas 
a matter of doubt and of debate. Therefore, did 
I publish a disputation, inviting only the learned 
to discuss the subject with me, if they chose. 
This my enemies may know, as it standeth in the 
prefatory words at the head of the propositions. 



JE. 34.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



243 



" Behold, this is the conflagration whereof the 
whole world complain, indignant, perhaps, that I, 
a master of theology by your authority, should, 
after the custom of all the universities and of the 
whole church, have the right to dispute in a pub- 
lic school, not only on indulgences, but .... on 
incomparably greater things By what un- 
lucky chance it is, that these particular proposi- 
tions of mine, more than all others, either of my 
own or of any teacher, should go forth into nearly 
all the earth, I am at a loss to know. They were 
set forth here for our use alone, and how they 
should come to everybody's knowledge is incredi- 
ble to me. They are not doctrines or dogmas, 
but matters of debate, stated, according to cus- 
tom, obscurely and enigmatically. Could I have 
foreseen the result, I would assuredly have taken 
care to make them more plain and clear. But 
what shall I do ? Recall them I cannot ; and 
yet I see that their notoriety bringeth upon me 
great odium. ... In order, then, to soften my 
adversaries, and to gratify many friends, I send 
forth these trifles, [Proofs, &c] to explain my 
theses. For the greater safety, I let them go 
forth, most blessed father, under your name, and 
under the shadow of your protection. Here, all 
who will may see how sincerely I honour the 
ecclesiastical power and reverence the keys ; and 
also how basely I am reproached and belied by 
my enemies. If I were such as they would make 
me to be, if those things were not all proposed 
for the sake of debate, it would be impossible 
that the illustrious elector should allow such a 



244 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518 



pestilent thing in his university, — being, as he 
is, a vehement lover of the catholic and apostoli- 
cal doctrine, — or that I should be borne with, 
by the acute and zealous teachers in our univer- 
sity. But I speak to no purpose ; for these gentle 
spirits do not stick at covering with the like in- 
famy the elector and the university. Wherefore, 
most blessed father, I cast myself, with all I am 
and have, prostrate at your feet. Save or slay, 
call or recall, approve or disapprove, as it shall 
best please you ; I will acknowledge your voice 
as the voice of Christ presiding and speaking in 
you. If I am worthy of death, I refuse not to 
die ; for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness 
thereof ; blessed be his name, and may he keep 
you evermore. Amen." 

A course of events was rapidly hastening on 
which was destined to shake Luther's confidence, 
both in the bishop and in the church of Rome. 
Eck had circulated extensively, though privately, 
his manuscript comments, or " Obelisks," on Lu- 
ther's theses. The latter sent his "Asterisks," 
also privately, as a reply. Carlstadt, in the mean 
time, made a public answer. Eck professed to re- 
gret the course things were taking, and Scheurl, 
a friend of both, undertook to mediate between 
him and Luther. The following is Luther's re- 
ply : " What you desire in behalf of our Eck, my 
dearest Christopher, would not have needed the 
mediation of such a friend, if the matter were still 
open, and he had been beforehand with you in 
writing of his letters. My suspicion that Eck's 
heart was turned away from me, is much in- 



M. 34.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



245 



creased for the reason, that, after all the oppro- 
brious words heaped upon me by him, though 
privately, he never communicated with me on the 
subject, either in writing or by word of mouth. 
Now, as Carlstadt's Positions are already pub- 
lished, though without my consent or knowledge, 
I know not what can be done by either of them. 
Sure I am, that I hold the man's good parts in 
great esteem, and his learning in admiration ; and 
what has taken place, I testify to you, moves me 
to grief, rather than to anger. On my part, I 
have written him the kind and friendly letter 
which you will herewith receive and can read. 
Not only for your sake am I reconciled, but on 
account of the confession made by him, though 
not to me, that his notes have been sent forth 
by the fraud or malice of others. Therefore, 
both you and he have me in your power in this 
matter. Only see that he do not answer our 
Carls tadt too sharply. Let him remember that 
it was his fault that these evils should spring up 
among friends. As my Asterisks were given out 
only privately, there is no need of his answering 
them if he do not choose. But if he desires to 
rejoin, I stand ready for either event, though I 
should choose peace." 

Before advancing to the correspondence relating 
to Luther's citation to appear for trial at Rome, 
and his actual appearance at Augsburg for that 
purpose, it will be convenient to advert to some 
other particulars connected with his present situa- 
tion and occupations, equally illustrative of his cha- 
racter and of his feelings at the present juncture. 

21* 



246 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



June 4, he wrote to Spalatin: "I pray you, my 
dear Spalatin, to take it patiently that I am so 
slack and negligent in writing to you. I am not 
ahle to perform half the business which is unex- 
pectedly and fast increasing upon my hands. 
Peter Mosellanus was here not long ago, and is 
content to accept the conditions and begin his du- 
ties [at Wittenberg] as professor of Greek; and 
he desired me to write unto you to that effect. 
I promised to write, which I now do, not knowing 
whether there had been any negotiating between 
you. It will remain for you to do in this matter 
as God shall give- you knowledge and ability. . . . 
John Tetzel has written against my German dis- 
course a treatise in German, a singular witness and 
herald of his ignorance. I will hold the light to 
it, so that all may see what it is." 

For reasons not known, the negotiations with 
Mosellanus were broken off, and Reuchlin was 
consulted, who recommended Melancthon as pro- 
fessor of Greek; and in August he was on the 
ground, thenceforward the second great pillar of 
the Reformation. 

June 29, he writes again to the same: "I am 
not angry, most excellent Spalatin, that those men 
say the worst things of me, or that they give out 
that the Proofs and Conclusions owe their origin 
to the elector. I only fear that this will be the 
occasion of stirring up enmity between such 
princes, especially, if the Elector of Brandenburg 
should allow, by way of requital, any thing to 
take place like unto what we lately heard of him. 

"You ask me, how far I think dialectics useful 



M. 34.] COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 247 

to a theologian. I see not how they can be other- 
wise but hurtful. In the training and exercising 
the minds of the young, they may have their use ; 
but in sacred learning, where faith and heavenly 
illumination alone are sought after, they ought to 
be left behind, as Abraham, about to offer sacrifice, 
left the servants and asses behind." 

To his most intimate friend, Link, now in Nu- 
remberg, who, together with Scheurl, kept Luther 
informed of all that was going on in the south of 
Germany for or against the Reformation, Luther 
writes, July 10: "I should have sent you, reve- 
rend father,* the Proofs of my Theses, but for the 
slackness of our printer, who himself feels ashamed 
of it. Eighteen of the conclusions [about one- 
thud of the book] were already printed, which I 
have endeavoured to have sent to you immediate- 
ly. .. . Our vicar, John Lange, [chosen at the 
late meeting at Heidelberg,] who is here to-day, 
saith, he hath been warned by a letter from Count 
Albert of Mansfeld, to suffer me by no means to 
go from Wittenberg [to Augsburg,] because some 
nameless persons of pow T er are lying in w T ait to 
hang me or drown me. I am plainly that man of 
contention and discord mentioned in Jeremiah, and 
do daily vex the Pharisees with new doctrines, as 
they are called, though I am conscious of teaching 
nothing but the purest theology. I have all along 
known that I should present an offence to the 
sanctimonious Jews, and folly to the most wise 
Greeks. But I hope that I am a debtor to Jesus 



* Title as monk and theologian. 



248 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



Christ, who saith to me also, I will show him how 
great things he must suffer for my name's sake. 
For, if he doth not say this, why hath he made 
me invincible in the ministry of this word ? Why 
hath he not taught otherwise than I preach ? Such 
was his holy will. The more men are enraged, 
the more confidence will I have. My wife and 
children are provided for, [he was then unmarried.] 
My lands, houses, and goods are all set in order, 
[he was still a monk, and owned nothing.] My 
reputation and name are already torn and man- 
gled, and only a frail body remaineth. . . I know 
that the word of Christ from the beginning of the 
world hath been of such a sort, that he who would 
maintain it must, with the apostles, forsake and 
renounce all things, and stand in waiting for death 
every hour. If it were not so, it would not be 
the word of Christ. It was purchased with death ; 
it was promulgated with death ; it hath been main- 
tained with death, and must be hereafter. Thus, 
our enlisting was to us an enlisting to blood. Pray 
that the Lord Jesus may increase and preserve 
this spirit in his faithful poor sinner." 

"I have lately preached before the people on 
the power of excommunication, wherein I have 
taken occasion to chastise the tyranny and igno- 
rance of that most sordid horde of officials, com- 
missaries and vicars. All cry out with wonder 
that they never heard such-like things. We are 
all aware what ills this will bring upon me ; a 
new fire will be kindled. But so the word of 
truth is made a sign everywhere spoken against. 
I had desired to debate these matters in a public 



M. 34.] COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 249 

disputation, but behold public rumour prevented, 
and stirred up so many of the great, that my 
Brandenburg bishop desired, through a noted 
messenger, that I would put off the disputation; 
w T hich I have done, especially as my friends also 
advised it. Behold what a monster I am, whose 
every endeavour is intolerable ! Doctor Jodocus 
of Eisenach hath sent me a letter, running over 
with the greatest zeal, (for so must I mention with 
honour the most impassioned passion of this man,) 
far more bitter than that which you heard read 
before the chapter. He said the same things 
openly to me in Erfurt. It excruciates even to 
madness these men that they must become fools 
in Christ; that our most eminent masters in all 
the world must be considered as having erred for 
so long a time." 

On the 7th of August, 1518, Luther received a 
formal citation to appear within sixty clays at 
Home for trial. Prierias, his opponent and bitter 
enemy, was appointed one of the judges by whom 
he was to be tried. All Luther's friends readily 
perceived that this was but a Bomish trick to se- 
cure his destruction. At that time the German 
diet was in session at Augsburg; the one at 
which Ulrich von Hutten published his attack 
upon Borne; the last which the Emperor Maxi- 
milian ever attended. The Elector Frederic, with 
his secretary and counsellors, was there. 

On the following day, August 8th, Luther wrote 
thus to Spalatin : " Now, my dear Spalatin, I 
greatly need your succour; or, rather, the honour 
of almost the entire university requireth it w T ith 



250 LIFE OF LUTHER. [1518. 

me. What is wanted is, that you should use 
your power with the illustrious prince (the elector) 
and Pfeffinger, that he, the prince, and his ma- 
jesty the emperor, procure a release for me, or 
permission to have my cause tried in Germany, 
as I have written to the elector. For I see how 
craftily and maliciously those murderous preach- 
ers are plotting my destruction. I would fain 
have written to Pfeffinger that he might, by his 
good offices and those of his friends, seek the 
same favour for me from the emperor and the 
elector. But this must be done without delay, 
for only a short time is allowed me, as you will 
see in this monster of a summons. Read it, with 
its hydra heads and portents. If you love me 
and hate iniquity, obtain the counsel and succour 
of the elector as speedily as possible ; and, when 
you have done so, signify it to me, or rather to our 
reverend father Staupitz, who is either already with 
}^ou at Augsburg, or will be there soon. ... I beg 
you not to be anxious or cast down on my account. 
The Lord will, with the temptation, make a way 
of escape. To the dialogue of Silvester [Prie- 
rias,] which is indeed silvan and rustic, I am now 
making a reply. You shall have it entire as soon 
as it is ready. This same sweet creature, my ad- 
versary, is also to be my judge, as you will see in 
the summons." 

On the 20th, he writes again : " The messen- 
ger whom I sent to our illustrious Prince Frederic 
hath not yet returned. I am, therefore, still wait- 
ing to learn what the Lord intendeth through you 
to do in my case. I have heard that the reverend 



JE. 34.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



251 



Cardinal Cajetan is specially charged by the pope 
to use his endeavours to imbitter the emperor and 
the elector against me. [Happily the effort did 
not succeed.] So timid is the conscience of great 
pontiffs ; or rather such is the insufferable power 
of truth over deeds done in darkness. And yet 
I, as you know, my dear Spalatin, have no fear in 
all these things. Even if their flatteries or their 
authority should have the effect to render me odious 
unto all, I have this left in my heart and conscience, 
that I know and confess that whatsoever I hold and 
they impugn, I have from God, to whom I cheer- 
fully refer all and offer all. If he take them 
away, let them be taken away; if he preserve 
them, let them be preserved ; and let his name be 
hallowed and blessed for ever : Amen. I do not 
yet well see how I can escape that ecclesiastical 
censure which is purposed, unless the prince shall 
come to my aid. And, on the other hand, I would 
much rather be under perpetual censure, than 
have the prince suffer in his good name on my 
account. As I have before offered myself, so be- 
lieve and be assured I still hold myself ready for 
any thing you should wish, or think best. A 
heretic I never will be ; err I may in disputation. 
But I wish to decide no doctrine ; only, I am not 
willing to be the slave of the opinions of men. It 
seemeth best to our learned and prudent friends 
here that I should ask our prince, Frederic, for a 
safe-conduct through his dominions, and that he 
should refuse it, as I know he would, and that this 
should be urged as my reason and excuse for my 
not appearing in Rome." 



252 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



It was in the very midst of these transaction?, 
and before any thing was agreed upon between 
the elector, the emperor, the cardinal and the 
pope, in respect to Luther's trial, that the latter 
was cheered by the accession of a brilliant young 
man to the university and to the circle of his par- 
ticular friends ; who, from that time, enjoyed his 
confidence and supported him in his great work 
more than any other individual. Nothing could 
have been more advantageous or more opportune 
than this event. At the time when the timidity 
of Staupitz was beginning to cause him to with- 
draw from Luther, and when the mature and 
learned Caiistadt began to betray a want of tact 
in the management of affairs, Melancthon was 
sent by Providence, with his winning and amiable 
character; with his varied, elegant and profound 
learning; with his clear, philosophic views, his 
sincere piety and warm friendship, to take his 
stand by the side of Luther, and join him as his 
truest and ablest associate in righting out the 
battle of truth. 

When the negotiations with Moselfanus, in re- 
spect to the Greek professorship, were broken off, 
in July, 1518, the elector applied to Reuchlin, 
then residing at Stuttgard, to recommend two 
professors, one for the Greek and one for the He- 
brew language. Reuchlin recommended Melanc- 
thon for the former, and (Ecolampadius for the 
latter. Melancthon was at that time twenty-one 
years of age, and was temporarily occupying the 
chair of rhetoric at the University of Tubingen, 
but a few miles from Reuchlin's house. Being 



JE. 34.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



253 



the grandson of Reuchlin' s sister, the young Me- 
la net h on had been carefully educated under his 
direction. He distinguished himself by his rapid 
acquisitions in the Latin school of Sirnler at Pforz- 
heim. At Heidelberg, where he entered the uni- 
versity at the age of twelve, he acquired the 
reputation of being the best Greek scholar. At 
Tubingen, to which, at the end of two years after 
having taken his first degree, he resorted, and 
where he spent six years in laborious study, he 
made such extensive and various acquisitions in 
learning as to stand prominent above all the 
youths of the university. Destined, as he was, 
to be the "preceptor of Germany," it was well 
that his range of study at Tubingen was very 
wide. Proceeding from the Latin and Greek, as 
from a common centre, he extended his studies to 
history, rhetoric, logic, mathematics, philosophy, 
theology, law, and even to the leading medical 
writers, and attended lectures on all these sub- 
jects. He not only warmly espoused the cause 
of Reuchlin, as the representative of Greek and 
Hebrew literature, and its persecuted but victo- 
rious defender against the ignorant Dominican 
monks of Cologne, but he made himself familiar, 
even from boyhood, with the New Testament in 
the original — a copy of which, received as a pre- 
sent from Reuchlin, he always carried about his 
person. Reuchlin, in his reply to the elector, said 
he knew of no German who was Melancthon's 
superior, except it be Erasmus of Rotterdam. 
July 24, 1518, Reuchlin wrote to his young kins- 
man : " I have received a letter from the elector, 



254 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



offering you a place and a salary \ and I will apply 
to you the promise of God made to Abraham: 
'Get thee out of thy country, &c. ; and I will 
make thee a great nation; and I will bless thee, 
and make thee a great name, and thou shaft be 
blessed.' So I prophesy of thee, my dear Philip, 
who art my care and my comfort." 

He Avent by way of Augsburg, in order to see 
the elector there before he should leave the diet, 
then in session. On leaving Augsburg, Melanc- 
thon proceeded to Nuremberg, where he made the 
acquaintance of Pirkheimer and Scheurl, and then 
pursued his way to Leipsic, where he saw the 
young Greek professor Mosellanus, and on the 
25th of August, 1518, reached Wittenberg. Lu- 
ther's joy, on learning what an acquisition was 
made to Wittenberg in this remarkable young 
man, was great; and never had he occasion to 
abate his admiration. In the very next letter 
after the one last quoted from him, under date of 
August 31, he writes to Spalatin, still in Augs- 
burg with the elector: "As touching our Philip 
Melancthon, be assured all is done, or shall be, 
which you desire in your letter. He pronounced 
an [inaugural] oration on the fourth day after his 
arrival here, [in which he set forth the new 
method of study in contrast with the old scholas- 
tic method,] full of learning and force, meeting 
with such favour and admiration in all, that you 
may now leave off all anxiety in commending him 
unto us. We soon lost the feeling produced by 
his [small] stature and [his weak bodily] frame; 
and now we do wonder and rejoice at that which 



iE. 34.] COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 255 

we find in him, and thank the illustrious prince 
and yourself for what you have done. You have 
need, rather, to inquire in what study he may 
render himself most acceptable to our prince. 
With his consent and approval, I would choose 
that Philip be made Greek professor. I only 
have fears that his feeble health will not abide 
the severity of our climate. I hear, furthermore, 
that he receiveth too small a stipend, so that the 
men at Leipsic are hoping to get him away from 
us. He was beset by them on his way to this 
place." 

September 2, he writes to the same, informing 
him that the students, now eagerly pursuing the 
new studies, and hearing, by way of preference, 
lectures on the Bible and the ancient languages, 
complain that, before receiving their degrees, they 
are required to attend useless courses of lectures 
on scholastic theology. Luther and his friends 
desired that those studies be made optional, and 
that persons be admitted to the degrees in theo- 
logy on passing a regular examination on the new 
branches of study introduced by him, Melancthon 
and others. He closes by saying, " I commend 
unto you heartily the most Attic, the most erudite, 
the most elegant Melancthon. His lecture-room 
is full, and more than full. He inflameth all our 
theologians, highest, lowest and midst, with a love 
of Greek." 

On the 9th of the same month, he writes to 
Lange: "The very learned and most Grecian 
Philip Melancthon is professor of Greek here, a 
mere boy or stripling if you regard his age, but 



256 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



one of us if you consider the abundance of his 
learning and his knowledge of almost all books. 
He is not only skilled in both languages, [Latin 
and Greek, then a rare thing,] but is learned in 
each. Nor is he wholly ignorant of Hebrew." 
After going to Augsburg, whither he resorted for 
reasons soon to be given, he wrote to Melancthon 
himself, under date of Oct. 11 : "There is nothing 
new or strange here, saving that the whole city is 
filled with the rumour of my name, and everybody 
is eager to see the new Herostratus that has kindled 
such a conflagration. Concerning yourself, go on 
in your manly course, as you have begun. Teach 
the youth right things. I give myself up to be 
sacrificed for them and for you, if it be the will of 
God. I will sooner j>erish, and, what is most 
grievous, for ever lose your dehghtful converse, 
than recall what hath been rightly said, and be- 
come the occasion of extinguishing good learning. 
Italy is covered with Egyptian darkness, together 
with those sottish and yet savage enemies of let- 
ters and of study. They neither know Christ 
nor the things of Christ ; and yet they are our 
lords and masters both in matters of faith and of 
morals." 

We must now resume our narrative in respect 
to Luther's summons and trial. So far was Lu- 
ther from being terrified at the threatening aspect 
things were beginning to wear at Rome, that he 
published a bold reply to Prierias. At the close, 
he says, " Behold the answer I make you, hastily 
and within the space of two days, because what 



M. 34.] COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 257 

you have brought forward against me appeared so 
trifling. ... If you wish to rejoin, see that you 
bring your Thomas upon the arena a little better 
equipped ; otherwise you will not get off so easy 
as you have this time. I have put myself in 
check, lest I should render evil for evil." Such 
language did he venture to hold to an adversary 
now his judge! The nature and extent of his 
Christian courage are w 7 ell portrayed in a letter to 
Staupitz, Sept. 1. "Do not doubt," he writes, 
"my reverend father, that I shall maintain my 
freedom in examining and expounding the Scrip- 
tures. Neither the summons nor the threats 
given out shall move me. I suffer, as you know, 
incomparably worse things, [spiritual conflicts,] 
which make me regard those temporal and mo- 
mentary thunderings as trifles. Still, I sincerely 
regard ecclesiastical authority. ... If Silvester 
[Prierias,] that silvern sophist, shall go on, and 
provoke me further with his scribblings, I shall 
not play with him again, but, giving loose reins to 
my mind and pen, will show him that there are in 
Germany men who understand his Roman arts. 
... I see that attempts are made at Rome that 
the kingdom of truth, i. e. of Christ, be no longer 
the kingdom of truth. They continually ply their 
rage to hinder truth from being heard and enter- 
tained in its own proper kingdom. But I desire 
to belong to this kingdom, if not truly, as I 
should, in life, truly at least with my tongue and 
heart, renewed, albeit, and making true confession. 
I learn from experience that the people are sigh- 
ing for the voice of their Shepherd, Christ, and 

22* 



258 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



the youth are burning with wonderful zeal for 
the sacred oracles. A beginning is made with 
us in reading of Greek. We are all giving our- 
selves to the Greek for the better understand- 
ing of the Bible. We are expecting a Hebrew 
teacher, and the elector hath the business in 
hand." 

Meanwhile the elector, still at Augsburg, was 
using his influence with the emperor and with the 
papal legate, that Luther might receive his trial 
in Germany. Sept. 9, Luther writes to Lange : 
" The illustrious prince hath written unto me, that 
he hath persuaded the legate, Cajetan, to write to 
Rome, asking that my cause may be tried within 
the country; and that I must wait for the answer. 
I have hopes, therefore, that the ecclesiastical 
censure will be withholden. But I am offensive 
to many, more, most." Nevertheless the cardinal, 
without waiting for any new instructions from 
Borne, agreed that Luther should appear before 
him at Augsburg, at the close of the diet. Of 
the character and conditions of that trial, how- 
ever, nothing was decided. The elector and 
many other members of the diet had left the 
place before Luther's arrival. The latter, happy 
to learn that he was released from the obligation 
to appear at Borne, readily complied with the re- 
quest to present himself before the papal legate 
at Augsburg. He set out on foot, availing him- 
self of the hospitality of the cloisters that lay in 
his route. He reached Weimar, Sept. 28, and on 
the following day, which was a great festival, he 
preached in the chapel attached to the palace, and 



M. 34.] COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 259 



touched upon the character of the bishops, who, 
instead of appearing in the form of servants of the 
church, acted the part of lords and tyrants. The 
treasurer of the monks at Weimar, by the name 
of John Kestner, approached Luther, and ex- 
pressed great solicitude in respect to the result 
of the step he was about to take. " Oh, my dear 
doctor," said he, " the Italians are very . learned 
people. I fear you will not be able to gain your 
cause with them, and they will put you to the 
flames." Luther replied, "With nettles I could 
bear; but with fire it would be rather too hot. 
Dear friend, pray to our Lord God in heaven with 
a paternoster for me and for his dear Son, whose 
is my cause, that he would show mercy. If he 
will maintain my cause, let it be maintained; if 
he has not a mind to maintain it, then I will not 
maintain it; I will let him see to that." From 
this place he was sent forward by the elector, 
who furnished him with many important letters to 
those who were to be his counsellors and protec- 
tors at Augsburg. A few miles before reaching 
the place, he was so exhausted that he was obliged 
to take a carriage. He had also borrowed a robe 
of his Nuremberg friend Link, that he might ap- 
pear the more respectably before the great men at 
Augsburg. 

Three days after his arrival, he wrote to Spa- 
latin : " I arrived, my dear Spalatin, at Augsburg 
on St. Mark's day, Oct. 7. We were very much 
wearied ; I especially was almost consumed by 
the journey, being exhausted from a disordered 
stomach. But I have recovered. This is the 



260 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518 



third day since my arrival, and I have not yet 
seen the most reverend legate. I sent to him, on 
the first day, Doctor Link and another to announce 
my arrival. In the mean while, my good friends 
here have been diligent in procuring for me a safe- 
conduct from the emperor and the senate [of 
Augsburg.] By the authority of our illustrious 
prince, they are all very kind unto me and careful 
of my wants. Although the reverend cardinal 
legate promiseth to use all lenity, [he had made 
such a promise to the elector,] yet my friends are 
not willing that I should put any trust in him. 
They take upon themselves to exercise their own 
prudence and diligence in this matter. For they 
know that, whatsoever he pretendeth outwardly, 
he is inwardly very bitter against me. I have 
had the same thing hinted, in no obscure manner, 
from other quarters. To-day I shall go unto him, 
and seek my first audience, and see him face to 
face. What will be the issue, I know not. Some 
think it a good omen for my cause that the Car- 
dinal Gurk is absent; others, that the emperor 
himself is absent, though the latter is not far 
away, [engaged in the chase,] and his return is 
daily expected. The Bishop of Augsburg is also 
absent from the city. Yesterday I dined with 
Dr. Conrad Peutinger, and a better citizen and 
man I have never seen. He is most of all en- 
gaged in my interest, and other senators are 
scarcely less so. Whether the reverend legate is 
afraid of me, or is cherishing a monster,* I do not 
know. Yesterday he sent unto me the orator of 



* Secretly favouring a bad cause. 



M. 34.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



261 



Montferrat, who told me not to visit the legate 
without first having a conference with himself. 
It is thought by all, that he came by the legate's 
order. With many words, and, as he saith, 'judi- 
cious counsels,' he endeavoured to persuade me to 
submit forthwith to the legate, and to return to 
the church by recanting my hard speeches, at the 
same time proposing to me the example of Joa- 
chim, Abbot of Florence, who, by such means, 
though he had said heretical things, escaped from 
being a heretic. Then the sweet creature wished 
me to abstain from giving the reasons for what I 
had said. 6 Dost thou wish to break a lance T 
said he. To be short, he is an Italian, and will 
always be an Italian. ... He went on to make 
the most absurd declarations, and acknowledged 
openly that it was right to preach what was false 
for the sake of a good profit, as he called it, and 
filling the purse. . . . But I dismissed this Sinon, 
[who deceived the Trojans in regard to the w 7 ooclen 
horse,] who had so little of the Grecian cunning, 
and he went his ways. Thus I am in suspense 
between hope and fear ; for this unapt mediator 
hath inspired me with no little confidence." 

Luther goes on to mention that he had engaged 
Rossenstein, of Ingolstadt, as professor of He- 
brew, and provided for his travelling expenses to 
Wittenberg; that Staupitz had written that he 
would be at Augsburg as soon as he should know 
that Luther was there ; that the orator of France 
had left Augsburg, but not without leaving a sig- 
nal proof of his regard for him; that the golden rose 
was sent to the elector by the pope, and "salutes 



262 LIFE OF LUTHER. [1518. 

all his Wittenberg friends, and wishes them pros- 
perity, whether he returns to them or not." The 
letter to Melancthon, written about the same 
time, has been already given above. 

October 15, he wrote again to Spalatin : "I 
am not minded, my dear Spalatin, to write to 
our illustrious prince. You, therefore, who are 
familiar with him, receive my communication, and 
signify it to him. The legate hath treated with 
me, or rather against me, now for the space of four 
days ; having before promised our illustrious prince 
that he would act a kind and fatherly part, but, 
in truth, doing every thing by inflexible power 
alone. He was loath to have me debate the mat- 
ters in dispute with him publicly; nor was he 
willing to discuss them with me privately. His 
replies were all of this one tenor : ' Recant ; ac- 
knowledge your error ; the pope will have it so, 
and not otherwise, whether you will or not,' and 
such-like. ... At length, overcome by the entrea- 
ties of many, he consented that I should give my 
reasons in writing ; which I have done this day, 
in the presence of the elector's minister, Felitzsch, 
who brought to mind the prince's request. At 
length the paper was rejected with disdain, and 
my revocation loudly demanded ; and, with a long 
rehearsal from the fables of Aquinas, he seemed 
to conquer and silence me. I essayed a dozen 
times to say a word, and he chopped in upon me 
as many times with thundering tones, and reigned 
alone." Luther finally said to him, "If you will 
prove your point even from those papal decrees 
you have been reading, I will revoke as you de- 



M. U.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



263 



sire." "And now such airs and such laughter! 
He suddenly seized the book, read eagerly and 
out of breath/' till he came to a certain passage, 
when Luther stopped him, and said, "This ex- 
pression teacheth just the contrary of what you 
assert. My conclusion is, therefore, right." " He 
being confused, and yet not wishing to appear so, 
prudently dashed off upon another matter. But 
I eagerly and not very reverently interrupted 
him, and said : 6 Let not your reverence suppose 
that the Germans are ignorant of grammar, too.' 
. . . His confidence deserted him ; and, as he 
cried out, £ Recant,' I left him, he meanwhile say- 
ing, 6 Go, and return not to me till thou art will- 
ing to recant.' " What is here thrown together 
took place at different times, as will appear from 
the following. 

Luther had received the imperial safe-conduct 
on Monday, the 11th of October. On Tuesday, 
in company with Frosch, prior of the Carmelite 
convent, with whom he lodged, two other breth- 
ren of the same order, and Link, and another 
Augustinian monk, he had proceeded to the legate, 
with whom he found the apostolical nuncio and 
the orator Urban, above mentioned. According 
to instructions previously received, Luther pros- 
trated himself upon his face before the legate. 
When the latter bade him rise, he rose first upon 
his knees, and afterward upon his feet. Mean- 
while, a throng of curious Italians had crowded 
into the room, in order to see the fearless monk. 
After acknowledging that he w 7 as the author of 
the theses, and saying that he was willing to be 



264 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



instructed if he had erred, the legate required 
him to confess his errors, and promise to drop 
them, and no more trouble the church. The 
errors were chiefly two, the denial that the merits 
and sufferings of Christ are the treasure of the 
church, and the assertion that faith was necessary 
in order to partake of the holy communion. Here 
ensued the discussion mentioned in the foregoing 
letter. On returning to his lodgings at night, he 
found Staupitz there, having just arrived from 
Salzburg, his present residence. On Wednesday, 
Luther proceeded again to the cardinal's house, 
accompanied by Staupitz, the three imperial coun- 
sellors, Auerbach, Peutinger and Langenmantel, 
and by Felitzsch, and desired permission to reply, 
in writing, to any errors which might be imputed 
to him; and this, after a long discussion, in which 
Staupitz took part, was granted. On Thursday, 
he came again with Felitzsch, the elector's minis- 
ter, and Dr. Ruhel, and presented a full reply in 
writing, in which he resolutely maintained the 
two positions complained of, and showed the 
heresy of the contrary view. This was the paper 
which the legate threw aside in contempt; and 
then it was that he was reduced to silence by 
Luther, who turned against him the very passage 
the legate was reading to prove his point. In 
the afternoon, the legate sent for Staupitz, and 
requested him to undertake the work of persuad- 
ing Luther to renounce his heresy. But Staupitz 
replied that he could not do it, as Luther was too 
strong for him in the Scriptures. He finally made 
the attempt; but, when Luther brought forward 



M. 34.] COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 265 

his passages of Scripture, and asked Staupitz to 
give any other interpretation of them, he con- 
fessed he could not, and concluded by saying to 
Luther : " Remember, dear brother, that thou 
hast taken this matter up in the name of Jesus." 
The cardinal then agreed with Staupitz that he 
would point out the particular articles which 
Luther should retract. But the articles did not 
come, and Luther sent his friend Link to request 
that the points in dispute might be adjusted. The 
legate appeared friendly, said he did not regard 
Luther as a heretic, and that he would not ex- 
communicate him, unless he should receive further 
command so to do from Rome, whither he had 
just sent a special messenger with Luther's reply. 
If Luther would but admit the single article on 
indulgences, he continued, the case might easily 
be disposed of, for the article on faith might ad- 
mit of some explanation. "A clear proof this," 
said Staupitz, on hearing it, "that Rome hath 
more care for money than for faith and salvation." 

It was the opinion of the various friends of 
Luther, that Staupitz and Link should leave 
Augsburg, and put no further confidence in these 
wily Italians ; and consequently they both went, 
though by different routes, to Nuremberg the same 
day. Luther remained all day, Saturday, without 
hearing from the legate; also the following Sun- 
day, when he sent a very humble communication 
to Cajetan, saying, he had, in his excitement, been 
too violent and disrespectful toward the pope; 
that it would have been better to have been more 
temperate, and not to have answered a fool ac- 

23 



266 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



cording to his folly; that he would be silent in 
respect to indulgences, if the other party should 
be made to do the same. He would furthermore 
gladly renounce , whatever his conscience would 
allow; but at no one's command, nor to please 
any one, could he violate his conscience. Having 
received no word in reply, he wrote again on 
Monday, saying, he was not conscious of neglect- 
ing any thing which belonged to him as a faithful 
son of the church; he could not waste his time, 
nor be longer burdensome to the Carmelite mo- 
nastery. Besides, the legate had forbidden him 
to appear again without a revocation. His friends 
had advised him to appeal from the pope misin- 
formed, to the pope better to be informed. Eccle- 
siastical censure he had not deserved; neither did 
he stand in fear of it. By the grace of God he 
had reached to that point, that he feared excom- 
munication less than he feared error. The legate, 
he hoped, Avould, before the pope, put a kind con- 
struction upon his departure and upon his appeal. 
Luther remained Monday and Tuesday, and as 
he heard nothing from the cardinal, his friends 
thought such silence no good omen, and, accord- 
ing to their advice, Luther left Augsburg, Wed- 
nesday, the 20th, on a horse which Staupitz had 
provided for him, and with a guide furnished him 
by the council. Langenmantel led him out of the 
city through a small gate by night. Luther, with- 
out suitable garments, that is, in a monk's robe, 
without boots, rode about forty miles the first day, 
and when he alighted from his horse at the stable 
at night, he was unable to stand, and fell down 



M. 34.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



2G7 



on the straw. In Grafenthal, half-way between 
Coburg and Jena, Count Albert of Mansfeld 
found him, and laughed heartily at the bare- 
footed and bare-legged rider, and made him his 
guest. 

Luther felt thankful for his safe return, respect- 
ing which he had been apprehensive. To Caiistadt 
he had written: "But whether I come back to 
you without injury or separation, or be banished 
to some other place, may you prosper and adhere 
to Christ, and exalt him without dismay or dis- 
couragement." Still, with a single word, (revoco, 
I revoke,) he might, he assures us, have rendered 
himself most acceptable and beloved. "But," says 
he, "sooner than renounce that doctrine which has 
made me a Christian, will I die, be burned, banished 
and cursed." 

The very day he reached Wittenberg, Oct. 31, 
precisely twelve months from the time he came 
out with his theses, he wrote to Spalatin: "To- 
day, my dear Spalatin, have I come, by the grace 
of God, safely to Wittenberg, not knowing, how- 
ever, how long I shall abide here, for I am in a 
state of uncertainty between hope and fear." 
After saying, that if his first appeal is without 
effect, he will make another to a general council, 
he adds, "I am full of joy and peace, so much so 
as to marvel that this my trial should appear a 
great matter to many notable men." At Nurem- 
berg, on his way home, he saw, for the first time, 
the papal brief and other instructions given to 
Cajetan, by which it appeared he was already 
condemned, unless he renounced his errors. He 



268 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



was greatly incensed at this " apostolical, or rather 
diabolical brief." " It is incredible that a thing so 
monstrous should come from the chief pontiff, 
especially from Leo X. . . . If, in truth, it did 
come forth from the Roman court," he continues, 
"then I will show them their most licentious 
temerity and their most ungodly ignorance." He 
did, indeed, afterward publish that brief, with a 
cutting running commentary, in which, among 
other things, he says, "The best of all is, that 
the brief is dated August 23, and my citation was 
given August 7, leaving a space of but sixteen 
days. . . . What, then, becometh of the sixty 
days spoken of in my summons ? — [within which 
he was to appear for trial.] Is this the fashion 
and custom of the Roman court, to cite, warn, ac- 
cuse, judge, condemn and give sentence all on one 
and the same day ; and that, too, when the person 
indicted is so far from Rome as to know nothing 
thereof? What answer will they make to this ? 
Peradventure they forgot to clear their brain with 
hellebore before entering upon these acts of decep- 
tion and fraud." 

In the same letter, quoted above, Luther men- 
tions that Frosch, prior of the Carmelite monas- 
tery at Augsburg, who had treated him "with 
incredible liberality and kindness" during his stay 
there, was about to apply for the degree of doc- 
tor of divinity at Wittenberg. " He is worthy on 
sundry accounts," says Luther, "to be requited 
with a favour from us. By promise of the elec- 
tor, as he saith, he expecteth a public dinner to 
be given unto him on occasion of that solemnity. 



M. 84.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



269 



I may rest well assured it will be so, if the elec- 
tor hath promised it. All needful preparations 
wall, without doubt, be made. See to it, then, 
that his expectation be fulfilled on our part with 
due honour." The elector seems either not to 
have had a distinct recollection of the promise, 
or to have found some difficulty in fulfilling it. 
Luther observes, not without chagrin, in a sub- 
sequent letter : " Lest a man so worthy of being 
honoured be dismissed without honour, w r e have 
had recourse to our own monastery, and shall 
provide the dinner at our own trouble. . . . But 
we are very poor, and there is already a multi- 
tude of us, so that w T e cannot, without difficulty, 
be at that expense. I pray you, therefore, to see 
that the prince furnish us with the wild fowl and 
venison." On the 18th of November, Luther, as 
dean of the theological faculty, conferred the de- 
gree. But Melancthon, the young Greek profes- 
sor, whom the heroic reformer had as yet seen 
but a few times, did not come to the dinner. 
Luther wrote him the same day the following 
facetious note, inviting him to supper : " To-day, 
you have despised me and the new doctor, which 
may the muses and Apollo forgive you. And I, 
though the affair was not altogether mine, myself 
forgive you. But unless you appear this time to 
meet Dr. Caiistadt, licentiate Amsdorf, and espe- 
cially the rector, neither your Greek learning, nor 
little brother Martin, as Cajetancalleth me, will ex- 
cuse you. The new doctor jocosely saith he sup- 
poseth he, as a barbarian, is lightly esteemed by 
the Greek. Be careful what you do, for I have 

23* 



270 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



promised that you will assuredly be present this 
time." 

As early as the 25th of October, Cajetan wrote 
to the Elector Frederic, complaining of Luther, 
and affirming that his teachings were contrary 
to those of the Roman see, and deserving to be 
condemned. " Your grace," he continues, " may 
believe me, for I speak the truth, from what I 
certainly know, and not from mere opinion." He 
then begs and exhorts the elector either to send 
Luther to Rome, or to banish him from the coun- 
try. This letter was put into the hands of Lu- 
ther, with the request that he would indicate 
what reply ought to be given. Luther took this 
opportunity to rehearse the whole course of the 
transactions with Cajetan; to expose the unfair- 
ness of them, and to open the eyes of the prince 
more fully in respect to the chicanery practised 
by the Roman court. In this letter he says to 
the elector : " In order that no evil may accrue 
to your grace on my account, a thing which I 
least of all desire, I purpose to forsake your do- 
minions, and go wheresoever my gracious God 
will have me, and submit myself to his divine 
will, whatsoever may come." He wrote to Spa- 
latin that he should regret to be arrested in his 
course at Wittenberg, not so much on his own 
account as on that of the university, and the 
many excellent young men who were there, 
burning with zeal for a knowledge of the Holy 
Scriptures. If he should be silenced, the turn 
would next come to Carlstadt and to the whole 
theological faculty. The university wrote to the 



M. 34.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



271 



elector, entreating him to interest himself espe- 
cially in the cause of Luther. To his congrega- 
tion Luther said, " I am, in these times, as you 
well know, an irregular preacher, having often 
gone away without taking leave of you. Should 
that ever take place again, I will now say fare- 
well, in case I should not return." 

As Frederic was very reserved in regard to his 
opinion of Luther's course, and as the latter was 
desirous not only not to involve his prince in the 
controversy, but to enjoy more freedom for dis- 
cussion than he supposed could be allowed him 
in Saxony, he seriously purposed retiring from 
his post, and seeking some other place of abode. 
Paris seemed to be the place of his choice, as he 
vainly imagined the defenders of the liberties of 
the Gallican church would sympathize with him. 
There was much consultation with Spalatin and 
other friends about the place and manner of re- 
tirement, and all things were arranged by Luther 
for a speedy departure, when suddenly, on the 
1st of December, a letter came to him from the 
secretary Spalatin, which prevented the execu- 
tion of the plan. 

December 2, he writes : " Had your letter not 
been received yesterday, my dear Spalatin, I had 
taken measures for my departure, and I still hold 
myself ready either to go or to remain. The con- 
cern my friends feel for me maketh me marvel, 
and is mere than I can endure. Some have urged 
with great earnestness that I should give myself 
up as a captive to the elector, in order that he 
might take possession of me and keep me in 



272 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



custody, and then write to the legate that I was 
detained in safe keeping until I should render an 
account of my doings. What opinion ought to be 
entertained of this advice, I leave to be decided 
by your wisdom. I am in the hands of God and 
of my friends. 

" It is certain that the elector is believed to be 
on my side. This I learn from a man who would 
assuredly not deceive me. At the court of the 
Bishop of Brandenburg, the question was lately 
moved what my confidence was, in whose support 
I trusted. One replied, 1 In Erasmus, Capito, 
and other learned men.' 'No,' said the bishop, 
6 these would have no weight with the pope. It 
is the University of Wittenberg and the Duke of 
Saxony that uphold him.' Thus I clearly see 
that the elector is thought to be with me, and 
this displeaseth me. The suspicion he stands in, 
as being joined with me, will constrain me to 
withdraw, if any thing can have that effect; al- 
though the elector might say in his reply, that 
he is a layman, and doth not take upon him to 
judge in such matters ; and the more so, because 
he seeth that the university, which hath the ap- 
proval of the church, is not against me. But you 
have no need of these my cogitations. If I re- 
main here, I shall be hindered from saying and 
writing many things ; if I go away, I shall open 
my whole mind, and offer up my life unto Christ." 

The pope resorted to another expedient in order 
to accomplish his purpose in respect to Luther. 
He appointed Miltitz, a Saxon by birth, now 
agent of the elector at Borne, as a nuncio to 



M. 34.] COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



273 



Germany, and fitted him out with a golden rose, 
a token of friendship given only to princes who 
were the pope's favourites. Miltitz was to unite 
with this flattering office that of making good 
what had been lost by Cajetan toward effecting 
a reconciliation. This undertaking of Miltitz, 
which from various causes was an entire failure, 
was a sort of interlude. The nuncio acted a 
shrewd part, and, but for Eck and other zea- 
lots, would probably have been successful. He 
avoided connection with Cajetan, who had be- 
come generally odious by his arrogance, and as- 
sociated himself closely with Pfeffinger, the elec- 
tor's minister. He demeaned himself as a subject 
of Frederic, admitted the justness of Luther's 
complaints against indulgences, and treated Lu- 
ther with great consideration and tenderness. 
For a long time, he was received and treated 
with suspicion. Luther did not trust him. Still 
he induced Luther to make many important con- 
cessions, all that could possibly be made by him 
with a good conscience. When, in the beginning 
of the year 1519, the imperial throne became 
vacant, the pontiff was interested to exclude the 
house of Austria, already too powerful, from the 
succession, and secure the election of the King 
of France. Frederic's position, as one of the 
most influential of the electors and as vicar of 
the empire, now rendered it necessary for the 
Roman see to change its haughty tone toward 
him, and consequently Luther was left for seve- 
ral months comparatively free. 

On the 9th of December, 1518, Luther wrote 



274 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



two letters to Spalatin, one in which he proposes 
a moderate reform in the university, by dropping 
one or two courses of lectures in the scholastic 
philosophy ; the other in which he speaks thus : 
"That which you, my dear Spalatin, direct me 
not to do [the publishing of his account of the 
interview with Cajetan at Augsburg] hath been 
already done. My rehearsal of those doings 
has been published, and I have used great liberty 
therein, and yet have come short of the whole 
truth. Herein, as well as in all other matters, I 
perceive that I must act without any delay. Yes- 
terday I was given to understand from Nurem- 
berg that Charles von Miltitz was on his way 
hither with three papal briefs, as it is on good au- 
thority said, for apprehending me and delivering 
me up to the pope. The Eisleben doctor, who, 
with Felitzsch, was present when I stood before the 
legate, hath given me warning through our prior 
to be on my guard. ... I have heard many such- 
like things which, whether they be true, or only 
given out in order to terrify me, must not, I think, 
go unheeded. Therefore, to the end they may not 
come upon me unawares and despatch me, nor, on 
the other hand, cast me down and overcome me 
by means of judgments passed against me, I hold 
myself in readiness for any event, and so await 
the will of God. I have made my appeal to a 
future council. The more they rage and have 
recourse to violence, so much the less am I terri- 
fied. I will one day be yet more bold against 
those Roman hydras. That which you have 
heard, namely, that I have taken leave of the 



JE. 34.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



275 



people of Wittenberg, is not so. I only said, . . . 
'If I should ever again suddenly leave you, I 
wishvnow to say farewell, in case I should not 
return.' " 

On the 11th of the same month, he wrote to his 
friend Link in Nuremberg : " The report touching 
the three apostolical briefs, given unto Miltitz 
against me, hath come to my ears. Casper, 
[Aquila,] who had learned this from your letter, 
informed me of the same by a special messenger, 
in his over-anxiety for me. I send you my Trans- 
actions, written with more sharpness than the 
legate would like to see published. But my pen 
is already producing still weightier things. I 
know not whence these cogitations arise. This 
matter hath in my esteem hardly a beginning yet, 
so far is it from the end, which the great ones of 
Rome are looking for. I will send unto you my 
trifles, that you may see whether I rightly inter- 
pret the words of Paul in respect of antichrist, as 
referring to the court of Rome. I think I can 
plainly show that the Romans are even now worse 
than the Turks. ... I live in expectation of the 
attempts of my murderers, whether from Rome 
or from any other quarter. I marvel that the 
excommunication tarries so long. . . . Our studies 
are going actively on, and we are as busy as bees. 
Farewell. Greet all my friends, especially the 
preacher Sebaldinus, and the other master, but 
most of all Pirkheimer, Albert Diirer, and Chris- 
topher Scheurl, [the most influential men in Nu- 
remberg.] Eck writeth that he is not altogether 
pleased nor altogether displeased with my reply 



276 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



to Prierias ; but he addeth a very sagacious and 
true clause, namely, that he well knoweth his 
opinion will not weigh much with me." 

Two days later, he wrote to Staupitz, then in 
Salzburg, mentioning his safe return from Augs- 
burg, and then proceeding to say: "The elector 
dissuaded me altogether from bringing out my 
account of the Augsburg Transactions; but at 
length he hath given his consent, and they are 
now in course of printing. In the mean season, 
the legate wrote [to him,] bitterly accusing me 
and you and my associates, as he calleth them, 
complaining that I departed secretly from Augs- 
burg, and that it was clone in guile. He then 
counselleth the elector to send me bound to Rome, 
or to banish me from his dominions, in order that 
he bring not a foul spot upon his name for the 
sake of one little monk. He saith the cause will 
be sustained and prosecuted at Rome; that he 
himself hath written to the city, giving an account 
of my fraud, and that he hath washed his hands 
of the fault. The elector desired me to reply 
to that letter, in order that he might put my an- 
swer with his own, and send both to the legate. 
This have I done, and, as I think, in a satisfactory 
manner. The elector manifests much concern for 
me, but would choose I were somewhere else. He 
ordered Spalatin to call me to Lichtenburg, and to 
confer fully with me on the matter there. I told 
him, that if the excommunication should come, I 
would not continue here. He entreated me not 
to think of going to France. I am still waiting 
to learn his final decision. As for you, my be- 



M. 34.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



277 



loved father, farewell. Commend to Christ my 
soul alone. I see that these men have determined 
on my death ; but Christ determineth not to yield 
in me. Let, yea, let his holy and blessed will be 
done. Pray for me. . . . Our studies prosper 
well, save that there is a lack of time for our best 
lectures." 

To Reuchlin, the very next day, December 
14th, Luther wTote the following spirited and 
magnificent letter : " The Lord be with you, most 
courageous man : I rejoice in the goodness of God 
which is manifested in you, most erudite and most 
excellent sir, in that you have been able to stop 
the mouths of evil-speakers. Surely you were an 
instrument of the Divine will, though not knowing 
it yourself, yet longed for by all the lovers of a 
pure theology. Quite other things are accom- 
plished by God than that which seemeth out- 
wardly to be done through you. Of those who 
desired to be joined with you, I was one; but I 
had no opportunity. Yet was I always most pre- 
sent with you in my prayers and wishes. But 
now, that wdiich was denied me when I w T ould 
fain have been your fellow-labourer, is abundantly 
granted me as your successor. The teeth of that 
behemoth are now gnashing upon me, to repair, if 
possible, the dishonour received through you. I 
meet these men with much less of ability and 
learning, but not with less confidence, than that 
wherewith you met and overcame them. They 
abstain from contending with me. They refuse 
to reply unto me, and have recourse to nothing 
else but force and violence. But Christ liveth, 

24 



278 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



and I can lose nothing, because I possess nothing. 
By your firmness the horns of those bulls are not 
a little broken. This doth the Lord accomplish 
through you to the end that the sophistical tyrants 
may learn to be a little more tardy and moderate 
in resisting the truth; that Germany may draw 
breath again, and the teaching of the Scriptures 
be revived, which, alas ! have for so many centu- 
ries been not only kept down, but extinguished." 
He excused himself for writing so familiarly, by 
saying that his affection for him, and his know- 
ledge of him, both through common fame and 
through his books, together with Melancthon's 
assurance that it would be kindly received, em- 
boldened him thus to write. Ileuchlin's dispute 
with the Dominican monks of Cologne was at first 
personal, and related to the value of Hebrew and 
Greek literature; but it ended in dividing Ger- 
many into two great parties, henceforth to be 
represented by Luther and his opponents. 

In a letter to Spalatin, December 20, on the 
subject of the elector's letter to Cajetan, Luther, 
among other things, says : " I have seen the ex- 
cellent letter of our illustrious prince to the reve- 
rend legate. With what joy did I read that let- 
ter over and over again, which so aboundeth in 
Christian confidence, and is yet so wonderfully 
meek. I do only but fear that the Italians will 
not understand how much is meant under that 
humble attitude and form. They are a people, 
whose custom and use it is, both in their doings 
and in their writings, to set every thing forth with 
great ostentation and show. But they will, at 



M 34.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



279 



least, see so nmch as this, that nothing which 
they have put their hands to seemeth to prosper. 
It cannot be otherwise but that they will be 
greatly displeased. Wherefore, I entreat you in 
the Lord, to thank the prince on my behalf, and 
show unto him how joyful and grateful I am. It 
hath all turned out well that he, [Cajetan,] who, 
a little while before, was but a poor monk like 
myself, did not fear to draw near to great po- 
tentates, [such as Frederic,] without showing 
them any honour or reverence, and to threaten 
them, to command them, and to treat them as 
haughtily as he pleased. He may now know, 
though late, that the civil power is of God, and 
that the honours thereof may not be trodden in 
the dust, especially by one who hath received his 
own authority from only a man, [the pope.] It 
pleaseth me much, that in this matter the prince 
hath shown an impatience so patient and prudent. 
The Lord own and acknowledge all this, whatso- 
ever it be, as his." 

On the 27th of December, Miltitz reached Al- 
tenburg, his head-quarters while in Saxony. Hav- 
ing learned the vile practices of Tetzel, and espe- 
cially his squandering habits, he wrote to Leipsic, 
only twenty-seven miles distant, where that monk 
passed the remaining few months of his life, 
ordering him to appear at Altenburg, to give an 
account of his doings. We have the reply of Tet- 
zel, preserved in full. Under date of December 
31, 1518, he begins his letter thus: "Your ex- 
cellency hath given me notice, that I am required 
to come to Altenburg, to hear somewhat in par- 



280 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1518. 



ticular from you. Now, I would willingly under- 
take the labour of such journey, if I could, with- 
out peril of life, go out of Leipsic. For the 
Augustinian monk, Martin Luther, hath stirred 
up not only all the German estates, but even the 
kingdoms of Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland 
against me, so that I am nowhere in safety." 

He complains of Luther's hostility and false 
accusations, particularly as made in the account 
which the latter had recently given of the transac- 
tions at Augsburg, "in which all the blame was cast 
upon Tetze] and his abettors;" and closes by say- 
ing, that he has already suffered very much for 
his fidelity to the pope, but will nevertheless con- 
tinue to be faithful until death. He died not long 
after, in such wretchedness as to excite Luther's 
compassion, and draw forth from him a letter of 
Christian consolation. His death occurred during 
the Leipsic disputation, on the 4th of July, the 
very day that Luther, but a few rods distant from 
Tetzel's retreat, began his debate with Eck. 

Meanwhile, Luther had an interview with Mil- 
titz, at Altenburg, the first week in January, 
1519. On the second day, he writes without 
date to the elector : " It is quite too much that 
your electoral and princely grace should be so 
entangled in my affairs and troubles ; but, as it is 
a thing of necessity, which God hath so ordered, 
I pray you accept it graciously. Yesterday, 
Charles von Miltitz set forth very earnestly the 
discredit and dishonour done through me to 
the Roman see, and I promised to do, with all 
humility, what I could to make reparation. . . . 



M 'So.] COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 281 

First, I agreed to drop the matter, and let it die 
of itself, on condition that my adversaries do the 
same. For I think if they had let my writings 
pass, all should have been still, and the song 
ended, and the people weary of it long ago. 
Furthermore, I fear, if this course be not taken, 
but the strife go on either by violence or by dis- 
putation, something ill will come of it, and the 
play will turn out to be too much in earnest. 
Therefore, I think it best to let the matter end 
where it is. Secondly, I have promised to write 
to his holiness the pope, submitting myself hum- 
bly to him, and acknowledging that I have been 
too heated and violent, though I did not intend 
thereby to harm the holy Roman church, but 
rather, as a true son of the church, to set myself 
against blasphemous preaching, w T hich brought the 
Roman church into contempt and reproach among 
the people. Thirdly, I consented to put forth an 
address, exhorting all to follow, obey and honour 
th'? Roman church, and to interpret my writings, 
not to the discredit, but to the honour of that 
church ; and I promised to confess, in the same, 
that I have been too warm, and, perchance, out 
of season, in what I have said. . . . Fourthly, 
Master Spalatin, at the instance of Fabian, pro- 
posed to lay the matter in dispute before the most 
reverend Archbishop of Salzburg, by whose deci- 
sion, to be made after consultation w r ith learned 
men, I must abide, unless I may choose to appeal 
from it to a future council. Perhaps the jar may 
thus be stayed, and made quietly to pass away. 
But I fear the pope will not allow a judge, [to cle- 

24* 



282 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1519. 



cide between Mm and me,] and I certainly will 
not allow the pope's authority. If, therefore, the 
first plan doth not work well, the play will be, 
that the pope will give the text, and I make 
the commentary. But that is not a thing to be 
wished. I have conferred with Miltitz thereon, 
who doubteth this will not be enough; and yet 
did he not demand a recantation from me, but will 
take the proposal into consideration. If your 
grace thinketh I can do more, condescend, for the 
Lord's sake, graciously to show it unto me ; for 
all pains taken to draw from me a retractation will 
nothing avail." 

To many it seems difficult to interpret these 
concessions in a manner that shall be honourable 
to Luther. His firmness seems almost to have 
deserted him. But we must remember that his 
case, at that time, appeared nearly desperate. He 
was unwilling to stand in such relations of depend- 
ence to the elector, or to involve him in the con- 
troversy. The result was very uncertain. The 
papal nuncio treated him with great kindness, and 
conceded nearly all that he had asserted, so that 
Luther would come off quite as well as the pope 
would. Besides, the concessions of Luther related 
to the Boman church, in the abstract, apart from 
the abuses of unworthy functionaries ; and for this 
church, so viewed, he never lost his reverence, 
nor did he ever adopt the theory of separation. 
Luther was always, and more particularly in the 
earlier and later parts of his life, a churchman, and 
therefore he could take the ground he did in this 
letter. Finally, he refused to retract, and would 



M. 35.] COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 283 

confess little, except indiscretion in the manner he 
had written. And, after all, what if Luther was 
human, and w T as not always equally the saint or 
the hero? What if the transactions with the 
nuncio betrayed a weak point in the reformer in 
an hour of despondency and gloom ? Luther was 
not perfect, was not always consistent, nor always 
right either in his opinions or in his feelings. Far 
from it. 

The interview on Luther's part was somewhat 
of a diplomatic character. He distrusted the 
Roman courtier, though a Saxon by birth. He 
doubted whether the court of Rome would go so 
far as the nuncio believed. He wished to have it 
appear, in case of failure, that the fault was not 
his. And, moreover, he all the while entertained 
views and feelings which he thought it not best to 
betray either to the nuncio, or to the elector. He 
was dealing with men of the court. 

In the freedom of confidential correspondence, 
Luther, in letters to various friends, unbosoms all 
his feelings and transient impressions. But with 
wonderful variety and adaptation to character, he 
imparts to his several correspondents only what 
their peculiarities would enable them to appre- 
ciate, and what would meet with their sympathy. 
To the elector he writes with reserve, but in a 
way adapted to win his confidence and affection, 
and speaks of transactions as they would be likely 
to affect his policy. To Spalatin, he writes as to 
a friend and a theologian more fully and freely, 
but with the evident expectation that it wdll, 
indirectly and on the most fitting occasions, and 



284 LIFE OF LUTHER. [1519. 

with suitable accompaniments, reach the elector's 
ear. To Scheurl, he writes as to an intelligent 
statesman and warm friend, whom he highly 
respects, and whose influence in Nuremberg is of 
great importance to him. Through him, he is 
virtually addressing the south of Germany, and 
he does not forget this in the tone of his letters. 
To Egran, an independent and bold innovator or 
reformer in Zwickau, he writes as to a kindred 
spirit, and speaks right out without reserve. To 
Staupitz, he writes with affection and a deli- 
cate regard to his character and position, as a 
timid friend, whom he wishes to draw forth from 
his papal connections and sympathies. All these 
things must be taken into the account, if we would 
rightly understand his letters. 

To Scheurl he writes, January 13, 1519: "I 
have stolen from myself and from my labours this 
hour, and write, at last, to the intent that I may 
not seem unthankful for so many letters from you, 
or unwilling to reply. I, in all sincerity, thank 
you for the pure and true friendship whereby you 
lend me your counsels and show your solicitude 
for me. Gladly would I see the end of this tur- 
bulence, if my enemies were of the same mind. 
But they purpose, as I see, to compass their work, 
not by gentleness, but by power and violence. 
Hence, they daily stir up against themselves the 
more oppositions, and bring nothing to pass. That 
the upstir can never be put down b}^ naked force, 
I well know. The trifles of Sylvester [Prierias,] 
if they are indeed his, seem not to deserve a 
reply from me: they are puerile and womanly, 



m. 35.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



285 



nothing but the moanings of his grief. With 
Charles [Miltitz,] I have had a very friendly 
meeting, and it has been agreed, first, that utter 
silence on this subject shall be observed on both 
parts ; and, secondly, that by order of the supreme 
pontiff, some German bishop shall point out the 
errors which I shall retract. But, except God in- 
terpose, nothing will be brought to pass, especially 
if they shall take in hand to force me with that 
new decretal, the which I have not yet seen. I 
have heard that it asserts the plenitude of [the 
papal] power, without bringing forward any sup- 
port either from the Scriptures or from the canons. 
But this I would never grant to any decretal, even 
the most ancient. Who can tell what God intends 
to raise up through these monsters ? As touching 
myself, I am neither terrified nor desirous to hush 
the matter. I have in store many things, which 
could touch the Roman hydra, and which I would 
fain bring forth, if suffered to do so. But if God 
will not that I should have the liberty, the will of 
the Lord be done." 

In the dubious state of things then existing, 
what could be said more adapted in any event to 
secure the confidence and continued respect of the 
friend who had evidently been advising him to a 
peaceful course? How different the tone of his 
letter to Egran, who had already broken, on his 
own account, with the Papists, or rather with the 
monks who had assailed Luther. It was written 
February 2, and begins thus: "Accept a brief 
notice, my dear Egran, of the present state of 
my affairs. Charles von Miltitz was sent unto 



286 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1519. 



our prince, armed with more than seventy apos- 
tolical briefs, given to this end, that he should 
bring me alive and bound to Rome, that murder- 
ous Jerusalem. But being laid prostrate by the 
Lord on the way, that is, being terrified by the 
multitude of those who favour me, after he had 
most carefully noted the estimation in which 
the people held me, he turned his violence into 
friendship, which was nothing but a pretence, 
and treated with me a long while to persuade me, 
for the honour of the church, to retract what I 
had said. To which I replied after this sort: 
' Let the manner of retracting be determined, and 
the grounds of the error pointed out in such a 
manner that they would appear plain both to the 
common people and to the learned, lest a wrong re- 
tractation should stir up still greater hatred against 
Rome.' It was at length agreed by us, that the 
Bishops of Salzburg and Treves should be chosen, 
and that unto one of them the case should be re- 
ferred for decision; and thus we parted as friends 
with a [Judas] kiss. For in his entreaties he shed 
tears. I, for my part, feigned not to understand 
those crocodile tears. Thus far hath the matter 
proceeded. What is now doing at Borne, I know 
not. Charles [Miltitz] said, there had not for a 
century been a cause which had given more trou- 
ble to that most odious herd of cardinals, and of 
Romanizing Romanists; that they would sooner 
give ten thousand ducats, than allow this matter 
to go on as it had begun." Here we perceive 
clearly, that Luther had no confidence in the 
nuncio's sincerity, but still thought it best to treat 



M. 35.] COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 287 

with him without appearing to comprehend his 
policy. In this way, Luther would either induce 
him to effect a relaxation of the severity of the 
pope, or make it appear to all the world that he 
himself was not in fault if the reconciliation was 
not effected. 

The following letter to Staupitz, written Feb- 
ruary 20 th, wdll serve not only to illustrate the 
foregoing, but to throw light upon Luther's pre- 
sent relations to Staupitz, and upon the view 
they took of the course of events. " Though 
you are far from me, [at Salzburg, near the west- 
ern boundary of Austria,] reverend father, and 
keep silence, not writing to me as I had expected 
and desired, I nevertheless will break the silence. 
I and all others are desirous to see you here in 
these regions. I suppose you have received my 
Transactions, that is, the ire and indignation of 
Rome. God hurries and forces me on instead of 
leading me. I am not master of myself. While 
I desire to be quiet, I am driven into the midst 
of tumults. Charles Miltitz has seen me at Al- 
tenburg, and complained that I had drawn all 
the world away from the pope unto myself ; that 
he had, on his journey, made observation, and 
found that scarcely two or three out of five held 
with the Roman party. He was armed with 
seventy apostolical briefs for the purpose of car- 
rying me captive to that murderous Jerusalem, 
that Babylon in purple, as I afterward learned 
from the court of the elector. When that device 
was given up in despair, he undertook to per- 
suade me to retract, and thus to restore what I 



288 



^LFE OF LUTHER, 



[1519. 



had taken away. On my asking to be instructed 
as to what I should retract, it was agreed that 
the cause should be carried before certain bishops. 
I made mention of the Archbishop of Salzburg, 
Treves, and Freisingen. At evening I complied 
with an invitation to sup with him, and we had 
a pleasant season together, and when we parted, 
he kissed me. I made as though I did not 
understand this Italian dissimulation. He also 
summoned and censured Tetzel. Afterward, at 
Leipsic, he convicted him of receiving, as wages, 
ninety florins a month, besides three horsemen 
and a carriage, and all his charges to boot. Tet- 
zel himself hath now disappeared, no one, save 
perhaps the fathers of his order, knowing whither 
he hath gone. Eck, a man of guile, draweth me, 
as you here see [from his theses,] into new dis- 
putes. Thus the Lord taketh care that I be not 
idle. But, by the will of Christ, this [Leipsic] 
disputation shall turn out ill for those Roman 
laws and customs on which Eck leaneth for sup- 
port. . . . The Leipsic professors have given their 
consent to have the disputation with Eck held in 
their university, and accuse me of rashness in 
saying that they refused, and ask me to take 
back what I said. But I learned with certainty 
from Duke George that they had refused him; 
and I have twice replied that their dean had 
refused me, as in truth he did, when I requested 
permission. Thus craftily do these men strive 
to stifle this disputation, but Duke George urgeth 
it forward." 

By being " driven on and kept from idleness," 



M. 35.] 



COLLISION WITH TETZEL. 



289 



Luther means that Eck's propositions and chal- 
lenges frustrated the plans of Miltitz for effecting 
a reconciliation. For if the papal party should 
renew the discussion, Luther was, by the terms 
of the agreement, left free to reply. Tetzel did 
not leave Leipsic, as was supposed, but secluded 
himself there after his disgrace, and remained in 
the cloister, called the Paulinum, till his death, a 
few months after. Luther expresses his feelings, 
in respect to that humiliation and disgrace, in 
another letter thus : " I am sorry that Tetzel is 
reduced to such necessity in respect to his safety, 
and that his doings have been exposed to the 
light. I would much rather, if it were possible, 
that, by a reformation on his part, he should 
escape with honour. As 1 lost nothing by his 
glory, so I should gain nothing by his ignominy. 
I cannot sufficiently marvel that he should dare to 
take such a large amount of money from poor peo- 
ple for his own use, enough to support a bishop, 
nay, an apostle." 



290 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1519. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE LEIPSIC DISPUTATION. 1 

Section I. — Preliminary Correspondence. 

PUBLIC debate, 
held from June 27 
to July 8, 1519, 
at Leipsic, between 
Eck on the one hand, 
and Caiistadt on the 
other, to which Lu- 
ther was, with some 
difficulty, finally ad- 
mitted, derives its 
interest partly from 
the topics discussed — chiefly the liberty of the 
will, the power of the pope and indulgences — and 
partly from the scene of the transactions, and the 
peculiar relations of Leipsic to Wittenberg. The 
Duchy of Saxony, with Duke George at its head, 
Dresden for its capital, and Leipsic as its chief 
seat of theological learning, was strongly papal, 
and continued to be so for twenty years from this 
time, or till 1539. The Electorate of Saxony, 
belonging to the other line of Saxon princes, with 
Frederic, cousin of George, for its reigning sove- 
reign, and Wittenberg for its capital and its centre 
of theological influence, was the head-quarters of 
the Reformation. 

- 




M. 35.] 



LEIPSIC DISPUTATION. 



291 



Eck chose Leipsic as the place for holding the 
disputation, both for the favour which he expected 
there from the sympathies of the people and of 
the judges, and for the glory he hoped to acquire 
from the university and the court of George by 
a victory over the two champions of reform. Eck 
was perhaps the most learned, certainly the most 
celebrated Catholic theologian of Germany. He 
was then Vice-chancellor of the University of In- 
golstadt. He owed his great reputation princi- 
pally to his shrewdness and practised art as a 
debater. It was neither greatness of mind, nor 
depth and solidity of learning, but varied know- 
ledge, self-possession and skill in studying the 
passions and prejudices of men and turning them 
effectively to his account, — it was this that made 
him a formidable antagonist. And in this he suc- 
ceeded at Leipsic, though those who could esti- 
mate arguments by their intrinsic worth gave the 
victory to the other party. 

Eck, as it appears in the accounts already given 
of him, had been, for some little time, an acquaint- 
ance and personal friend to Luther, having been 
introduced to him by Scheurl of Augsburg. A 
little sparring between them had occurred in the 
Obelisks, or notes of the former, on the ninety- 
five Theses, and in the Asterisks, or reply of the 
latter. But at Augsburg, in 1518, they had met 
on friendly terms ; and the proposal of Luther 
that a disputation should be held between Eck 
and Carlstadt on the subjects embraced in cer- 
tain propositions which the latter had recently 
published, was agreed to, and Eck was allowed 



292 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1519. 



to choose between Leipsic and Erfurt as the place 
for the discussion. But when Eck came to pub- 
lish his counter-propositions, setting forth the 
points which he was to maintain, he not only 
put himself in opposition to Caiistadt's proposi- 
tions, but also to Luther's theses and other writ- 
ings, thereby covertly drawing Luther also into 
the debate. It was this disingenuous act which 
discharged Luther from the obligations he had 
entered into with Miltitz, according to which he 
was to remain silent, provided his opponents 
should do the same. The breach of the truce 
came, therefore, from the papal side ; and Eck's 
intemperate zeal was far more wounding to the 
feelings of Miltitz than to those of Luther. 

In the letter of Feb. 2, to Egran, quoted above 
in part, is the following paragraph : " Our Eck, 
who was besought by me, when at Augsburg, to 
meet Carlstadt in debate at Leipsic, in order to 
bring the controversy to an end, hath at last ac- 
cepted the advice. But behold the character of 
the man, of what sort it is. He hath [in his 
Propositions] fallen upon my theses, and vehe- 
mently assailed them, and hath passed by him 
[Carlstadt] with whom he is in controversy. You 
would think he was playing pranks at carnival. 
Therefore, in order to defend what I have said 
on indulgences, I am forced to enter the lists 
with him. He is a pitiable animalcula of fame." 
In a letter of congratulation to Lange, on the 
occasion of his receiving the degree of doctor of 
divinity, written Feb. 3, Luther observes : " Our 
Eck goeth about to stir up a new war against me ; 



JE. 35.] 



LEIPSIC DISPUTATION. 



293 



and the thing which I have long meditated will 
now, with the favour of Christ, be put in execu- 
tion; that is, the bringing out before the public 
some work directed in good earnest against the 
hydras of Rome. Hitherto I have but sported 
and played in the case, though my adversaries 
grieve dolefully as over a serious and insuffer- 
able matter." To Spalatin he writes, under date 
of Feb. 7th, " Our Eck, an insect of fame, hath 
published his propositions against Carlstadt, to 
be debated at Leipsic, after Easter. This per- 
verse man, after long making me the object of 
his hate, hath made an assault both upon me and 
my writings. While he nameth one antagonist, 
he aimeth his arrows at another. This stupid 
sycophancy of his doth ill please me, and there- 
fore have I published counter-propositions, as you 
will see in the accompanying papers. Eck will, 
peradventure, be the mean of turning what hath 
been but play into serious work, which will do 
poor service to the Roman tyranny." 

That the reader may understand what other 
subjects were, at this period, occupying Luther's 
thoughts, it may here be stated, by the way, 
that he wrote, according to promise, a very sub- 
missive letter, under date of March 3d, to Pope 
Leo X., in which he made great concessions, — 
greater than one would suppose possible under 
such circumstances. A few days previously, he 
had published an address to the common people, 
designed to conciliate them with the church of 
Rome. Referring to this address, in a letter to 
Spalatin, written March 5th, he says : " Twice, 

25* 



294 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1519. 



my dear Spalatin, have you requested me to 
speak of faith, of good works, and of obedience 
to the Roman church, in my Defence which was 
to appear in German. This I think I have al- 
ready done ; but it was published before your 
letter was written. Never was it my purpose to 
separate from the apostolical see of Rome. I am 
content that the Roman bishop should bear any 
title, even that of lord, if he please. What doth 
that concern me, who know that the rule of the 
very Turks is to be honoured, and submitted 
to, because it is an existing and an established 
power ? For sure I am that, as Peter saith, there 
is no power but by the will of God. But thus 
much do I at all times require, on the ground of 
my faith in Christ, namely, that they wrest not 
at their pleasure and corrupt the word of God. 
Let the Roman decretals but leave me the gos- 
pel pure and uncorrupt, and they may take away 
all else ; I will not move a hair. What more 
than this should I, or can I do ? I, then, will, 
on my part, strive for peace, as we have cove- 
nanted ; and will go about no new tiring. The 
disputation will, I hope, be nothing else but a 
disputation, and be listened to by the learned 
only, [being held in Latin;] the common people 
may employ their own language." These state- 
ments serve to explain why Luther went so far 
— undoubtedly too far — in his concessions, and to 
confirm what is otherwise abundantly proved, 
namely, that he desired a reformation which 
should consist in spirit rather than in forms, in 
pious feeling rather than in social privileges and 



JE. 35. J 



LEIPSIC DISPUTATION. 



295 



immunities. In respect to a rupture with Rome, 
there is an apparent inconsistency in Luther at 
this time, which finds its explanation in the fact, 
that he was in reality the subject of an inward 
struggle between two contending forces, drawing 
him alternately in opposite directions. 

The preliminaries to the disputation were ex- 
ceedingly complicated, consisting not only of the 
printed propositions and counter-propositions al- 
ready mentioned, but of Eck's correspondence 
with Duke George and with the Leipsic profes- 
sors ; of that between these professors and Bishop 
Adolphus of Merseburg; between the bishop and 
Duke George ; between the latter and the Elec- 
tor Frederic ; between Frederic and Luther, and 
between Luther and the Leipsic professors. 

In reply to a letter of Frederic's secretary, in 
which the terms of reconciliation, as proposed by 
Miltitz, were alluded to, Luther wrote to the 
elector himself, on the 13th of March, N the follow- 
ing, among other things : " God knoweth that it 
was my solemn purpose, as it was also my hope 
and joy, that this game, so far as in me lay, 
should be played no farther; and so strict was I 
in keeping the agreement [made with Miltitz] 
that I gave no heed to the answer of Prierias, 
though I had good cause to reply. I let the con- 
tempt and contumely of my adversaries pass, and, 
contrary to the advice of my friends, kept silence. 
The agreement was, as Charles [Miltitz] well 
knoweth, that I was to hold my peace, if my 
adversaries should do the same. But now Dr. 
Eck, without giving me any warning, hath made 



296 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1519. 



such an assault upon me, that it is plain he 
seeketh to bring both me and the whole univer- 
sity into discredit and disrepute; and many 
honest-minded men think he hath been suborned 
to do the same. I looked upon it as wrong to 
give no heed to an assault so perfidious, and to 
allow the truth to be forsaken in such dishonour." 

The elector consented that Luther should take 
part in the disputation, if Eck would really debate 
with him, and not with Carlstadt alone. The 
Leipsic professors and the Bishop of Merseburg 
made very extraordinary efforts to prevent the 
discussion. The letter of the former to Luther 
on the subject is still extant, and serves to throw 
a clear light upon their relation to the parties. It 
is dated Leipsic, February 19, 1519, and runs thus : 
" Not many days ago, dear doctor, while we were 
celebrating Christmas, the excellent John Eck, 
doctor of the Holy Scriptures, wrote to his illus- 
trious highness Prince George, to this university 
and to the doctors of divinity, appointing the 
theological faculty to sit in judgment, and to de- 
cide on the dispute and controversy which is to 
ensue, and earnestly requesting that we would 
permit him to debate with Carlstadt in our cele- 
brated university. . . . Because it seemeth to 
}^ou that he hath [in his Propositions] made an 
assault upon } r ou, and you are not minded to 
yield unto him, you have, in a printed document, 
challenged him in turn to a disputation. We 
greatly marvel that, contrary to our veritable 
decision, you have publicly said, that we refused 
his request in respect to the disputation, [they 



JE. 35.] 



LEIPSIC DISPUTATION. 



297 



having granted it as a debate between Eck and 
Carlstadt, but refused it if Luther was to be a 
party.] Contrariwise, we marvel that you have 
given out that such a disputation, [in which Luther 
was to take part,] whereof we know nothing, would 
be held in our university, you having received no 
permission [to participate in the debate] either 
from us, or from our illustrious prince and gracious 
sovereign. Therefore, seeing this act of yours 
hath the appearance of lightness, upon which you 
are bound to look with abhorrence, we earnestly 
entreat you not to bring us, contrary to our will, 
into trouble, p. e. to render them odious to the 
pope, by allowing his supremacy to be made a 
subject of debate in the university;] but, if it be 
agreeable to you, either to renounce your doc- 
trines, or in a reply to us, which we earnestly 
desire, to sound a retreat, until you shall obtain 
leave from us." Duke George was indignant at 
this opposition to a disputation to which he had 
given his consent. The professors said they were 
bound to the pope, and were moreover prohibited 
by their superior, the Bishop of Merseburg. The 
duke, therefore, addressed a letter of withering 
reproach to the bishop, which has been preserved. 
After expressing his "surprise that the bishop 
should set up an opposition to the custom handed 
down from the fathers, of making free inquiry 
after the truth in matters of religion," and saying, 
that "the question newly started deserved to be 
earnestly considered and the arguments on either 
side carefully weighed ; whether, for example, as 
soon as the price dropped into the box, the souls 



» 

298 LIFE OF LUTHER. [1519. 

of the dead were released from purgatory and as- 
cended to heaven, by which imposition the silly peo- 
ple were robbed of their money," he adds, "it ap- 
pears as though the bishop wished to show favour 
to useless, bladder-puffed persons, who, like cow- 
ardly soldiers, boast of their courage when out of 
the conflict, but flee as soon as the trumpet is blown." 
If those men, who glory in their titles, and claim 
the first place in assemblies and feasts, shall show 
themselves unwilling to earn their titles by de- 
fending and maintaining the truth, as their office 
requireth, "it would be cheaper and more useful 
to maintain old women and young children, who 
would clo more good, and be more obedient, than 
such theologians. Nay, the old women would be 
of some service by their spinning and sewing, or 
at least they could give pleasant pastime to the 
people by their voices." He closes by saying, 
that if the professors still persist in their refusal, 
he will issue a proclamation, from which it shall 
be known before God and all the world, that he 
desired the truth to be brought to light, but that 
the clergy, in their lack of knowledge and skill, 
could not abide a discussion, and therefore op- 
posed it. The Leipsic professors wrote also to 
the bishop, saying, that the duke commanded 
them to permit the disputation to be held, and 
that the bishop's opposition would be of no avail. 
The bishop replied to them, that he had not with- 
out good reason prohibited them from allowing 
the debate ; but that he would, nevertheless, sub- 
mit to the will of the duke. 

Eck was immediately informed both by the 



M. 35.] 



LEIPSIC DISPUTATION. 



299 



duke and by the university of the result, and 
hastened to write to Luther the following, dated 
Ingolstadt, February 19 : "That the learned men 
of the community should refuse the burden of 
hearing our debate, was very grievous to me, and 
I hardly knew what to do. But at length, the 
most gracious prince, Duke George, at my in- 
stance, hath prevailed on the university to yield 
their assent, as I this clay learn by letters from 
him, from the university and the [theological] 
faculty. I have therefore appointed the 27th day 
of June for the beginning of the disputation. We 
shall, howbeit, meet the theological faculty on the 
26th, to determine who shall speak first in the dis- 
cussion. Since that Carlstadt is only an accessory 
of yours, and you the principal, through whom 
those dogmas, which, to my small and slender 
judgment, appear heretical and false, have been 
spread through Germany, it is meet that you should 
be present, and stand by your positions and impugn 
mine. But how earnestly do I desire you to 
change your mind, and show yourself obedient in 
all things to the apostolical see, and listen to Leo 
X., vicar of Christ, not seeking for singularity, 
but descending to the common opinions of the 
doctors of the church, being well assured that 
Christ hath not, as you vainly imagine, left his 
church to their errors for four centuries. You 
will see from my schedule of articles for debate, 
that I have laid doAvn propositions, not so much 
against Carlstadt as against your doctrines. Fare- 
well, then, my Martin, and let us pray for each 
other that we may be enlightened." 



300 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1519. 



Meanwhile, Luther was active as a negotiator, 
professor, commentator, student of Hebrew, and 
popular and controversial writer. A single letter 
of his, addressed to Lange, April 13, is all that 
can be presented on these various topics in this 
connection. In this we see the living, energetic 
and cheerful man, whose spirit was electrifying 
the whole continent of Europe. 

"I rejoice and congratulate you, reverend fa- 
ther, that you also are one of those in whom the 
cross of Christ worketh. Be of good courage ; 
this is the way in which one goeth, or rather is 
carried to heaven. For your presents I give you 
my thanks. But the reason of my not coming to 
your public celebration, [when Lange was made 
doctor of divinity,] you already know; my si- 
lence in respect to it is not a fault of mine so 
much as it is of the bad state of the roads, which 
hindereth persons from going, except now and 
then, to your place. That Hebrew teacher whom 
you recommend, I pray you send hither with all 
possible haste ; the more so, since that Bossen- 
stein of ours, professedly a Christian, but in effect 
nothing else but a Jew, hath, to the reproach of 
our university, withdrawn himself. I add, as 
another reason, that you yourself are somewhat 
indebted to our studies. We will see that he be 
honourably supported in Christ, and received on 
proper terms, both because we all ought to en- 
courage zealously a new convert, and because it is 
our duty to provide a suitable support for each. 
Eck hath determined upon the 27th of June for our 
future disputation. It will be between him and 



JE. 35.] 



LEIPSIC DISPUTATION. 



301 



me, as you will see from this document. For Carl- 
stadt will not debate those matters with him, 
partly because they were asserted by me, and 
not by him, and partly because that wily sophist 
[Eck] hath, with the design of entrapping him, 
started the question concerning the power of the 
pope, which a prebendary* cannot safely debate ; 
and thus would, without combat or victory, terrify 
the latter into silence. . . . All are alarmed for 
me that I shall not come off well with my twelfth 
proposition, [in which the supremacy of the pope 
is declared to be a modern doctrine, founded on 
the miserable decretals of the popes themselves.] 
But though I do not expect to catch that slippery, 
clamorous and haughty sophist, I will, with the 
help of Christ, make good my own declarations. 
They were made in their present . form, in order 
to give me occasion to bring out before the public 
the trivialness of those most senseless and un- 
godly decretals by which Christians are needlessly 
terrified ; for they are full of falsehoods, sup- 
ported only by the authority of the church of 
Rome. Christ will strip off the mask. . . . Mean- 
while, the theologians lacerate me, especially that 
bull, ox [Professor Oxenfurth, of Leipsic] and 
ass, who knoweth not his owner, but eateth the 
straw. They cry out unto the people of Leipsic, 
not to join the new heretics, hoping that we may 
be avoided on account of the hatred of the peo- 
ple, and from fear of the pope. It is reported 



* Carlstadt was a canon, supported by the funds of the colle- 
giate church at Wittenburg. 

26 



302 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1519. 



that Tetzel said, when he learned that the de- 
bate was to be held, ' The devil is in it. 7 . . . Car- 
dinal Cajetan, who formerly wrote silly things 
about me to our illustrious prince, hath now writ- 
ten like a madman. I rejoice to see this Italian 
stolidity made known to our laymen. 

"Frobenius, [the celebrated printer and book- 
seller,] of Bale, hath Avritten me, highly extolling 
my freedom of speech, and saying, his Paris 
friends have written to him, that my works are 
acceptable to many persons there, and that they 
are read by the doctors of the Sorbonne. Fur. 
thermore, he informeth me that the copies [print 
ed by him] are all distributed and spread through 
out Italy, Spain, England, France and the Nether 
lands. I rejoice that the truth, though spoken in 
a barbarous and unlearned manner, findeth such 
favour. I send you 'The Wagon' by Carlstadt,* 
which showeth forth the folly of the theologians. 
There is a tumultuous opposition to it in Leipsic. 
One preacher tore it in pieces with his hands in 
the pulpit. Another examined the young people 
when they came to the confessional whether 
they indulged in laughter at the 6 Wagon,' or kept 
about them any of Martin's tracts. If they 
pleaded guilty, they were punished with severe 
penalties. So Andrew Camitian write th to me. 
Behold what darkness, what madness ! These are 
theologians ! I think you have already received 
the beginning of my Commentary on .the Psalms. 



* A print of two vehicles, the one going the true and straight 
way to heaven, the other the false and tortuous way of the scholas- 
tic theologians. 



M. 35.] 



LEIPSIC DISPUTATION. 



303 



I send you another copy, whereby you can cor- 
rect yours. You see that our Emser [Luther's 
opponent at Leipsic, but in this case printer or 
proof-reader] errs even when printing the truth. 
I send you the [Hebrew] Grammar of Kimchi, 
until you can obtain another. I am also publish- 
ing a Commentary on the Galatians at Leipsic. 
If two sermons of mine have come into your 
hands, the one in Latin, on a Two-fold Righteous- 
ness, the other in German, on Matrimony, let jus- 
tice be done me. They were taken surreptitiously 
and published without my knowledge. ... I also 
send you the Lord's Prayer revised. . . . Have 
you seen my little works against Silvester [Prie- 
rias,] published at Bale ? — that in the title-page 
they have, rather by design than mistake, called 
him magirum Palcdii [cook of the Palace] instead 
of magistrwn Pcdatii [master of the Palace ;] and 
that many other ludicrous typographical errors 
are made in the margin ? It is reported that Car- 
dinal Cajetan is put in prison at Mainz by the 
ministers of Charles [V.] of Spain, for using all 
his authority in favour of the faction of the 
French king. Philip [Melancthon] and I have 
written to Erasmus. Here you have every thing 
you asked for. The reverend vicar [Staupitz] 
hath quite forgotten me, so that he doth not write 
at all. Kindly salute Father Usingen, and also 
John Nathin, [formerly Luther's bitter enemy.] 
Finally, I put you in mind of that Hebrew 
teacher, that we may help those excellent young 
men who are prosperously studying theology, and 
burning with a love of good learning. Farewell, 



304 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1519. 



you and your cross, [some trouble of which Lange 
had complained,] if it be the will of Christ." 

As, on the one hand, we must keep in mind the 
buoyancy of Luther's spirit, which gave a certain 
easy play to his great and varied activity, so, on 
the other hand, we must never forget the gravity 
and religious earnestness which lay beneath all 
this, as the deep ocean lies beneath the play of its 
waves; and the great fears and anxieties which 
never ceased to agitate the minds of his truest* 
and firmest friends. Like every heroic man in 
the crisis of his affairs, he was left alone, to sus- 
tain his courage from his confidence in God, in 
truth and the right, and from his willingness to 
perish, if need be, and leave behind him a mar- 
tyr's testimony for the benefit and instruction of 
coming generations. Nor this alone ; he was 
obliged to sustain his friends and supporters by 
infusing into them his own spirit. 

A letter of his, written some time in May to 
Spalatin, will illustrate these remarks. He writes 
thus: "I beseech you, my dear Spalatin, yield 
not unduly to fear, nor utterly slay your heart 
with human cogitations. Know that, unless Christ 
moved me on and my affairs, I should have de- 
stroyed myself even in my first Disputation on 
Indulgences : then in my sermon on the subject 
in the vernacular tongue ; later in my Proofs and 
Illustrations and in my reply to Silvester ; and, 
last of all, in my Account of the Transactions at 
Augsburg, and especially in my journey thither. 
For what mortal did not either fear or hope that 
any one of these perils alone would prove my 



M. 35.] 



LEIPSIC DISPUTATION. 



305 



ruin ? Finally, Olsnitzer hath lately written from 
the city to the chancellor of our Duke of Pome- 
rania that I have so stirred up all Rome by my 
Proofs and my Dialogue [Reply to Prierias] that 
they know not how to restore quiet. Yet they 
have determined to assail me, not by the way of 
1 the law, but by Italian practices," (these are his 
words.) By that I understand poisoning or assas- 
sinating. 

"Many things which, if I were elsewhere, I 
should pour forth against Rome, or rather Baby- 
lon, that devastator of the Scriptures and of the 
church, I repress and restrain, for the sake of the 
elector and of the university. The truth of Holy 
Writ and of the church cannot, my dear Spalatin, be 
discussed without offending this wild beast. You 
must not, therefore, expect me to be unmolested 
or secure unless I renounce theology altogether. 
Let my friends then think I am beside myself. 
This matter, if it be of God, shall not have an 
end, except that, as the disciples and friends of 
Christ forsook him, so all my friends forsake me ; 
and the truth too, — which saves with its own 
right hand, not mine, nor yours, nor that of any 
other man, — shall be left to itself alone ; and that 
time I have been expecting from the beginning. 
That this twelfth proposition was extorted from 
me by Eck, and that the pope will have plenty of 
patrons in the approaching disputation, ought not, 
I think, to appear so evil, especially if we remem- 
ber the license given to such disputations. In 
fine, if I perish, nothing will perish with me. By 
the grace of God, the Wittenbergers have mude 

26* 



306 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1519. 



such proficiency that they do not need me any 
longer. But what shall I say ? I am unhappy, 
because I fear I am not worthy to suffer and be 
put to death for such a cause. That felicity will 
be reserved for better men, not for such a vile 
sinner as I am. I have told you that I am at all 
times ready to withdraw, if my tarrying here 
seem to draw the illustrious prince into any dan- 
ger. Death will certainly come at some time. 
Still, in the Apology already published in Ger- 
many, I have sufficiently flattered the Roman 
church and pontiff, if that can any thing avail." 

To quiet Spalatin, he w r as obliged to lay before 
him the plan of his part of the discussion, and 
specify the particular arguments by which he 
should fortify himself in respect to the twelfth 
proposition on the supremacy of the pope. " I 
pray you," he says somewhat impatiently, " per- 
mit us to debate the matter, and be not of that 
class of men who, not understanding the counsels 
of God, immediately despair for that they do 
not see by their own counsels how a thing can be 
accomplished. ... Do not ask that I reveal my 
whole plan, which would be but destroying it, but 
rather pray that Christ may make us seek his 
glory." 

Before this disputation came on, Luther re- 
ceived, through the Bishop of Brandenburg, a 
condemnatory document, drawn up by the Fran- 
ciscan monks of Saxony, at their late meeting in 
Jiiterbok, in which they pointed out fifteen al- 
leged errors of Luther. These Minorite brethren 
of the " stricter observance," as they were called, 



38. 35.] 



LEIPSIC DISPUTATION. 



307 



and who vowed ignorance as one of their virtues, 
Luther exposed in his brief but terrible reply, as 
having poorly observed the rules of Christ in not 
admonishing a brother privately before publicly 
condemning him, but as having given good proof 
that they had sacredly kept the vow of ignorance. 
" But, not to return evil for evil," he adds, " I will 
give you your choice, either to retract your rash 
declarations and restore to me my good name, or 
let me go forward and publish your document 
with notes setting forth your ignorance, which 
will not turn out for the honour of your order." 
After refuting their slanderous declarations, he 
closes by sajdng, " I await your speedy answer, 
that I may know whether you choose to incline 
your necks, or to hold them aloft and set your- 
selves against the truth. Be assured I will treat 
you nobly and show unto all men your wonderful 
ignorance. Fare ye well, and the Lord give you 
to be wise and to will what is right. If you wish 
to be friends, I will be friendly; but if not, do 
what you have to do, and, believe me, I will not 
be lacking to my name and to the word of Christ." 
The Franciscans wisely preferred peace, and kept 
silence. 

On the 16th of May, Luther writes both to 
Spalatin and to Lange respecting Miltitz. In the 
letter to the latter he says : " Charles Miltitz hath 
cited me to Coblentz to appear before the Arch- 
bishop of Treves, in the presence of the legate 
Cajetan. Sweet creature ! He confesseth that 
he hath not yet received any authority from 
Home, and thinketh me stupid enough to come, 



SOS 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1519. 



though cited only by his rashness. You see that 
everywhere, and from every quarter, and in every 
manner, they seek my life." To the former he 
says : " That ridiculous block of a Miltitz [notice 
the prudence with which he always speaks to 
Spalatin] confesseth that he hath not yet received 
any command from Rome, and yet he citeth me. 
He citeth me, not the archbishop; and then I 
must appear before the cardinal ! Are not the 
men insane ?" In this last letter he complains of 
the injustice and 'duplicity of the Duke of Saxo- 
ny, saying : " Duke George hath twice replied to 
me, and will not admit' me to the disputation, 
though I have given him assurance that Eck com- 
pelleth me, both in his private letters and in his 
published propositions, to reply to him. Why 
should he exact so much of me as to require that 
Eck should write in my behalf, when he did not 
refuse to yield to Eck, nor require any thing of 
Carlstadt ? How monstrous ! I send you both 
of his letters. I am now writing to him a third 
time. Tell me, I pray you, what you think it 
best to do." 

In the midst of all this turmoil, the studies of 
the University of Wittenberg were moving briskly 
on, and the number of students rapidly increas- 
ing. Luther requests Spalatin, May 22d, before 
taking his journey with the elector, to ascertain 
the views of the latter in respect to the Hebrew 
professorship. Cellarius, professor of Hebrew at 
Heidelberg, was at Leipsic, waiting for an answer 
from Luther, ready to accept the place, if the 
elector would give him a suitable salary. "A 



iE. 35.] 



COURSE OF THE DEBATE. 



309 



great number of students/' he continues, "and 
notable ones, too, are flowing together here. . . . 
Our town will scarcely hold them, for lack of 
houses to serve them." 

Section II. — Course of the Debate. 

At length the time for the debate drew near. 
The duke ordered his palace, called the Pleissen- 
burg, to be prepared for the accommodation of the 
assembly. In the great hall he caused two desks, 
facing each other, to be erected for the disputants, 
the one adorned with a picture of St. Martin, 
the other with a picture of St. George. Seats 
for the audience and tables for the clerks were 
also prepared and embellished with tapestry. Eck 
arrived on the 22d of June, the day before the 
festival of Corpus Christi, and took part in the 
celebration, joining the procession, pompously ar- 
rayed in a mass vestment and chasuble. Several 
monks and theologians from Ingolstadt and Erfurt 
accompanied him to Leipsic. He was treated 
with great distinction by the theological faculty 
and the city council, with whom he feasted lustily. 
In a letter, he highly commended their hospitality, 
as well as the beauty of the Leipsic ladies, for 
whom Charles V. said he had too great a fondness. 
On Friday, the 24th, the clay after the festival, 
the Wittenbergers arrived, — a numerous company. 
In the first carriage sat Carlstadt, as the chief 
disputant; in the second, Prince Barnim of Pome- 
rania, then a student, and also, according to ancient 
usage, rector of the university ; in the third, Luther 
and Melancthon. About two hundred students on 



310 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1519. 



foot, with spears and halberds, according to Eck's 
statement, accompanied their professors. Lange, 
Amsdorf, and several doctors of laws and masters, 
were in the company. As they were near the 
Grimma gate of the city of Leipsic, and opposite 
the Paulinum, where Tetzel then was, Caiistadt 
had the misfortune to have one of the wheels of 
his carriage break, and to be thrown out, which 
some interpreted as an ill omen. The duke from 
Dresden, and Emser, and the three commissaries 
of the duke, Pflug, Riihel, and Wiedebach, were 
present as early as Saturday. Emser called on 
the masters in the university and urged them to 
stand by Eck, and escort him to the palace on 
Sunday, that a favourable impression might be 
made upon the duke. Here the commissaries and 
the parties, after much discussion, came to an un- 
derstanding in respect to the manner of procedure 
in the debate. Each of the parties was to choose 
a secretary. Luther chose J. Agricola of Eisle- 
ben; Eck chose J. Poliander, who, by the way, 
was converted to Luther's views by the debate, 
and went directly to Wittenberg. More than 
thirty others also took notes of the discussion. 
From the decision, to be made by certain uni- 
versities, either party might appeal to a general 
council. 

On Monday morning, (June 27th,) the time set 
for the commencement of the disputation, a civic 
guard was sent, with music and flags, to the palace 
Pleissenburg to preserve order. At seven o'clock 
in the morning, the disputants met in the Princes' 
college, where an address was made by Pistoris, 



M. 35.] COURSE OF THE DEBATE. 311 

of the law faculty. Thence the assembly moved 
in procession, two by two, a Wittenberg and a 
Leipsic master together, quite across the city from 
north to south to St. Thomas's church, where the 
duke and two princes were awaiting them. Here 
mass was held, and the assembly proceeded to the 
palace, (a few rods to the east,) where Mosellanus, 
the professor of Greek, and the friend of Melanc- 
thon and Luther, delivered an oration in the name 
of the duke, admonishing the disputants to be 
gentle and courteous, and to seek for truth rather 
than victory. After singing the Veni Sancti 
Spiritus, (Come, Holy Spirit,) the meeting was 
adjourned for dinner. In the afternoon, after 
both parties had promised to debate with sin- 
cerity and love, — Luther meanwhile expressing 
his astonishment that of the Dominicans, (with 
whom the whole affair of indulgences arose,) none 
were present to take part, — Eck and Carlstadt 
commenced the debate on free-will, which lasted 
a week, or till July 4. Never was there a more 
unequal match; Carlstadt, learned, modest, slow, 
confined to notes, and opening books and giving 
his authorities with exactness; Eck, self-pos- 
sessed, quick of memory, imposing, but loose, 
boisterous and ostentatious. The former accused 
the latter of quoting falsely, the latter laughed at 
the poor memory and tediousness of the former. 
From the 4th of July, the day of Tetzel's death, 
to the 8th, Luther debated with Eck on the su- 
premacy of the pope, and now the discussion 
grew animated, two practised debaters having 
come together, each of whom was accustomed 



312 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1519. 



always to bear off the palm. Luther proposed 
to close the discussion there, but the duke urged 
him to go on and debate on the subjects of indul- 
gences, purgatory and the power of the keys, in 
which Eck hardly made a show of resistance. 
He wished to return to his first antagonist, and 
consequently resumed the discussion with Carl- 
stadt on the 15th. But as the duke needed his 
palace, the disputation was closed, on the 16th, 
by an oration from a Dr. Lange, of Leipsic, in 
which he meted out to each disputant his share 
of praise ; the most to Luther, not a little to Eck, 
and to Carls tadt what was his due. Eck and his 
Leipsic friends claimed the victory; and if popular 
favour is to be the standard of judgment, the claim 
must be admitted. But learned men decided other- 
wise. Let us now hear Luther's account of the 
matter, as related by him in a letter to Spalatin, 
dated July 20, 1519. 

" Concerning that famous debate, I would have 
written you a long time ago, had I been able. The 
matter is thus : There are certain men at Leipsic, 
not over candid and upright, who triumph with 
Eck; and have, by their garrulity and vaunting, 
got a certain kind of glory. But the facts them- 
selves will, in due time, speak and bring all things 
to light. The selfsame hour that we arrived in 
Leipsic, before we had alighted from our carriages, 
a prohibition of the proceedings by the Bishop of 
Merseburg was posted up, on the doors of the 
churches. But, by order of the senate, the indi- 
vidual who posted it up was sent to the. dungeon 
for doing it without their knowledge. Accom- 



M. 35.] COURSE OF THE DEBATE. 313 

plishing nothing in this way, these men next 
resorted to another sleight, and, at Eck's request, 
laboured hard with Carlstadt privately to induce 
him to consent that the discussion proceed with- 
out any secretaries to record the arguments. For 
he hoped to succeed, as he had long been accus- 
tomed to do, by dint of voice and gesticulation. 
But Carlstadt would not consent. As that con- 
dition had been agreed upon, he said he should 
hold them to their stipulation. ... At length, to 
make the matter sure, he was under the necessity 
of consenting that the records be not published 
until the judges shall have given in their decision. 
A new dispute arose concerning the selection of 
the judges; and Carlstadt found it necessary to 
yield so far as to allow the judges to be appointed 
after the debate should be ended. Otherwise the 
opposite party said they should not proceed. Thus 
were we brought into a dilemma, and must either 
stop the proceedings or submit to partial judges. 
So you see the paltry practices whereby they 
wrested from us the promised freedom of dis- 
cussion. For we know full well that the univer- 
sities and the Roman pontiff will either not 
determine the question at all, or else they will 
decide it against us; and that is what our oppo- 
nents desired. 

" The next day I was called aside, and the same 
thing was propounded unto me. But, not trust- 
ing the pope, and being, moreover, dissuaded by 
my friends, I refused all these conditions. Then 
they proposed to leave out the pope, and named 
other universities. I still demanded the promised 

27 



314 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1519. 



freedom, [in respect to the disputation,] and since 
they would not allow it, I refused to take part 
in the discussion. Now it was rumoured abroad 
that I was afraid to debate, and, what was yet 
more untrue, that I would not consent to have 
any judges. These things were odiously and 
maliciously repeated, till all our friends were 
carried away with the rest, and our university 
was in danger of being brought into reproach. I 
finally yielded to the advice of friends, and ac- 
cepted, though not without indignation, the pro- 
posals ; with this condition, however, that I might 
appeal from the decision ; that my cause should 
not be prejudged, and that the court of Rome 
should not be included among the judges. 

" At first the disputation was begun with Carl- 
stadt, and continued for a week, on the subject 
of the freedom of the will. He brought forward 
his authorities, and, with God's help, he stated 
and maintained his arguments exceedingly well 
and abundantly. When it came his turn to be 
assailant, Eck refused [to be respondent,] unless 
Carlstadt would promise to leave his books at 
home. He had produced them in order to prove 
that his quotations from the Scriptures and from 
the Fathers were correct, and that he did not 
wrest them, as Eck was found to do. Here a 
dispute arose, and it was finally determined that 
the books should be left at home. But who doth 
not perceive, that, if they were in quest of truth, 
they would desire rather to have all the books at 
hand ? Never did envy and ambition show them- 
selves more openly. At the close, the double- 



JE. 35.] 



COURSE OF THE DEBATE. 



315 



faced man conceded every thing, though at first 
he had contended earnestly to the contrary. He 
feigned that he agreed in every thing perfectly, 
glorying that he had brought Carlstadt over to 
his side ! 

" The second week he disputed with me. First 
we closed with each other right earnestly con- 
cerning the primacy of the Roman pontiff. . . . 
Then, toward the end, great stress was laid by 
Sck upon the Council of Constance, which con- 
demned the opinion of Huss, namely, that the 
papacy was the creature of the emperor. . . . He 
also alleged that I was a heretic, and an abettor 
of the Bohemian doctrines. This sophist is as 
impudent as he is bold. With that accusation, 
the people of Leipsic were marvellously pleased, 
more than with the disputation itself. On my 
part, I brought forward the case of the Greek- 
church for a period of a thousand years, and of 
the early fathers, none of whom were ever sub- 
ject to the Roman pontiff. I did not deny, how- 
ever, that he was first in honour. I declared 
openly, and proved by direct and clear passages, 
that several articles, taught by Augustine, Paul, 
and by Christ himself, had been condemned. . . . 

" The third week we disputed touching repent- 
ance, purgatory, indulgences, and the power of ab- 
solution by the priest. For he was not minded 
to debate with Carlstadt, but directed his aim only 
at me. Indulgences fell to the ground at once, as 
Eck gave up almost every thing. Though they 
were to have been the principal subject of debate, 
he attempted to maintain them only by way of 



316 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1519. 



sport and of jest. It is reported that he said, 
if I had not denied the power of the pope, he 
could easily have agreed with me in every thing. 
. . . He maintained one opinion in the hall and 
gave out another in the church; and, when he 
was questioned by Carlstadt, why he was so 
changeable in his teachings, he replied without 
shame, that what is here discussed ought not to 
be taught unto the people. 

" When I was through with him, he took up 
the debate anew with Carlstadt for the last three 
days, in which he again yielded up and consented 
to every thing. Thus, in the whole disputation, 
nothing hath been worthily discussed, save my 
twelfth proposition. The people of Leipsic nei- 
ther saluted us, nor visited us ; but treated us as 
enemies ; while they thronged about Eck, clung 
fast to him, feasted with him, invited him to 
their houses, made him presents of a tunic and 
a camlet robe, and rode out with him. To be 
short, they did whatsoever they could to injure 
us. . . . Those who were friendly to us came to 
us privately. But Auerbach, a man of excellent 
genius, and the younger Pistoris, invited me to 
their houses. Duke George himself invited all 
three of us to his residence together." 

It is here interesting to perceive that Luther 
was a guest with that very Auerbach whose cel- 
lar has become so celebrated in connection with 
the name of Faust. 

The Leipsic disputation was chiefly useful to 
the cause of the Reformation, in opening the eyes 
of Luther himself on the whole subject of the 



<E. 35.J COURSE OF THE DEBATE. 317 

authority of the Roman pontiff, and in drawing 
public attention to this point. It led to the over- 
throw of another pillar of the papacy. A few 
individuals of the papal party were won to the 
side of Luther ; but most of the people of Leip- 
sic, and of the duke's dominions, manifested, from 
this time, a deadlier hatred than ever to Luther's 
doctrines. Many of the vexations which Luther 
experienced for a year or two thereafter, were 
caused by men who were under the Leipsic in- 
fluence. 

Of the many broils and disputes which grew 
out of this debate, as they were mostly of a per- 
sonal character, no particular account can be given 
in a brief biography. They are described in most 
of the histories of the Reformation, and to them 
the reader is referred. These disputes were with 
Emser, of the court of Dresden, with Duke George, 
with the Bishop of Meissen, with the Francis- 
can monk Alveld, and with men at Cologne and 
at Rome. Luther was almost everywhere de- 
nounced as a heretic. Even at the court of the 
elector, there was much displeasure with him. 
In these circumstances, the Prince of Dessau, 
and afterward the Franconian knight Schaum- 
burg, and Francis von Sickingen, through Yon 
Hutten, offered him protection, and invited him 
to their courts or castles. Luther wrote concilia- 
tory letters to the new emperor, Charles V., to 
the Archbishop of Mainz, and to the Bishop of 
Merseburg. In Nuremberg, Spengler, a member 
of the city council, took up the defence of Lu- 
ther. (Ecolampadius wrote an anonymous work 

27* 



318 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1519. 



directed against Eck and Eraser, which did ad- 
mirable execution. Feldkirch and Melancthon 
joined in the defence, and all together prepared 
the way for Luther's address to the German no- 
bility, which he wrote about this time, and which 
was the most magnificent and effective appeal 
which he ever made to the German nation. It 
united to his own religious spirit the glowing 
patriotism of Hutten. A finer specimen of popular 
eloquence is scarcely to be found in the language. 

Section III. — Various Worlcs of Luther on Practical Reli- 
gion; and his Perilous Situation after the Disputation. 

IDST storms of 
controversy, where 
the polemic writer, 
situated as Luther 
was, must use that 
adroitness, point 
and wit which are 
likely to affect the 
popular mind, there 
is danger of losing 
the spirit of humi- 
lity and charity. Luther was not always superior 
to such temptations. But as his polemical writings 
were but occasional productions, and his works on 
practical religion, commentaries, sermons, and cate- 
chetical writings were very numerous, we should be 
liable to do injustice to his piety, were we to over- 
look the latter class of his works, and judge of 
him exclusively from the former class. Although, 
in respect to the great controversy, his heart, as 




.E. 36.] WORKS ON PRACTICAL RELIGION. 319 

he often says, was full of the matter, and he had 
only to open his mouth, and it would stream forth 
spontaneously; still he took greater satisfaction in 
writing works purely religious, for the spiritual 
improvement of the people. At that period of his 
life of which we are now treating, he was very 
active in this kind of labour. 

The study of the Psalms afforded him very 
great delight. He had twice delivered a course 
of lectures on them in the university, and had 
now recently published, on the first twenty-two 
Psalms, what he modestly called Labours on the 
Psalms, not presuming to pronounce it a commen- 
tary. Labours indeed they were. 'You would 
not believe," he writes to Spalatin, " how much 
labour a single verse often makes me." It had 
been reported to him by Spalatin that the elector 
once said that sermons full of subtilty and human 
opinions were very cold and weak, but that the 
Scriptures had such a majesty and power as to 
overcome all the arts of disputation. In the de- 
dication to Frederic, he refers to this incident, 
and says that the elector had thereby entirely 
won his heart ; that he could not help loving the 
lovers of the Bible, and hating its enemies. He 
could not presume to understand and explain all 
the Psalms. It was much to understand a few, 
and these only in part. The Holy Spirit reserves 
much to itself, wishing to retain us in the charac- 
ter of pupils. 

In the same year, (1519,) in September, ap- 
peared his great work, the Commentary on the 
Epistle to the Galatians, in which he laid himself 



320 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1520. 



out to show, under every possible variety of form, 
the difference between the righteousness of the 
law and that of faith by which we are justified. 
This is the chief work in which the fundamental 
principles of the Reformation are carefully laid 
down, a work fully proving that his views were 
incomparably more scriptural than those of his 
opponents, but also showing that his own system 
was disfigured with some excrescences. 

He next wrote a deeply religious work for the 
consolation of the elector in his sickness, enti- 
tled Tesseradecas, because it consisted of fourteen 
chapters, seven images or views of affliction, and 
seven of blessings. Erasmus said this produc- 
tion was highly approved even by those who were 
violently opposed to the doctrines of the Refor- 
mation. 

He also wrote, in the early part of 1520, a ser- 
mon or popular treatise on Good Works, showing 
that outward acts of devotion, as prayers, fast- 
ings, almsgivings and mortifications, were of no 
avail, if they were performed without a living 
faith in Christ. " The Christian's faith and assu- 
rance makes every thing precious in the sight of 
God, which, in others, would be the most hurt- 
ful." 

He wrote another work in October of the same 
year, dedicated to Leo X., on Christian Liberty, 
in which he maintains and illustrates the state- 
ment that " a Christian is a free man, lord over 
all and subject to no one; and yet is servant of 
all and subject to every one;" containing, (para- 
doxical as it may sound,) the great truth that 



M. 36.] WORKS ON PRACTICAL RELIGION. 321 

Christ lias set us free, allowing no man to be lord 
any longer over our conscience ; and yet that the 
love of God leads us spontaneously to do good to 
all, and to be the servants of all. In the dedica- 
tory epistle, Luther fulfilled, in his peculiar way, 
the promise made September 12th to Miltitz and 
others, that he would write once more to the pope, 
assuring him that the assaults he had made upon 
the papacy were not directed against his person. 
"Though I have been forced," he says, "by some 
of thy unchristian flatterers, to appeal in my 
affairs from thy seat and tribunal to a Christian 
and free council, yet has my mind never been so 
alienated from thee that I have not wished well 
to thee and to thy Roman see. ... I have indeed 
fallen severely upon certain unchristian teachings, 
and been pretty nipping against my adversaries, 
not because of their evil lives, but because of 
their unchristian doctrines. Of this I do not re- 
pent, nor shall I leave off. . . . True it is, I have 
boldly impugned the Roman see, called the Ro- 
man court, which neither thou nor any other one 
can deny to be worse and more scandalous than 
Sodom, Gomorrah, or Babylon ever was; and, so 
far as I see, there is no help nor remedy for it. 
. . . For it cannot be concealed from thee that, 
for many years gone by, from Rome nothing hath 
gone forth but perdition of soul and body and 
goods. . . . Thou sittest, holy Father Leo, like a 
sheep among wolves, like Daniel among the lions, 
like Ezekiel among the scorpions. ... It were 
indeed thy proper business and that of the cardi- 
nals to stay this evil, but the disease mocketh at 



322 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1520. 



the remedy; the steed and the chariot give no 
heed to the driver. . . . Behold, the reason and 
ground of my setting myself so stiffly against 
this pestilential see. . . . Were I to retract, it 
would do no good. He who shall attempt to con- 
strain me to do it, will only make bad worse. 
Besides, I must have no rule and measure laid 
upon me for interpreting the Scriptures : for the 
word of God, that teacheth freedom, must not be 
bound." 

The tone of this epistle finds its explanation 
in the fact, that Luther had already gone so far 
in condemning the court of Rome, that he could 
not now either consistently or conscientiously 
speak of it in gentle terms. He had, about a 
week before, published his work entitled the 
Babylonian Captivity of the Church, in which he 
retracted the concessions he had formerly made 
in respect to the papacy, and declared it to be 
" the kingdom of Babylon, and the power of Nim- 
rod, the mighty hunter," alluding to the booty or 
prey taken by Tetzel and other "mighty hunt- 
ers." If any thing more were wanting to com- 
plete the rupture, it was supplied by the publica- 
tion of the bull which Eck had procured at Rome 
against Luther. 

October 11, Luther wrote to Spalatin : " The 
Roman bull, brought by Eck, hath at length come 
to hand. ... I hold it in contempt. . . . Not only 
at Leipsic, but everywhere, both the bull and Eck 
are despised. ... I rejoice with my whole heart 
that I am made a sufferer for the best of causes, 
though I am not worthy of a suffering so sacred. 



JE. 36.] WORKS ON PRACTICAL RELIGION. 323 

I am now more free than before, and 1 now feel 
assured that the pope is antichrist." 

Although he regarded the bull as genuine, he 
treated it as if it were spurious, and wrote a work 
" On the new Bulls and Lies of Eck," and an- 
other "Against the Execrable Bull of Antichrist," 
and a third, called "Defence of all the Articles 
condemned in the recent Bull of Leo X." A still 
bolder step was that of burning the bull, decretals 
and other books, in the presence of the students, 
before the Elster or eastern gate of the town. 
Luther announced the occurrence to Spalatin in 
the following manner, as though he were a news- 
paper chronicler of the events of the week. "In 
the year 1520, the 10th day of December, at 
nine o'clock a. m., were burnt at Wittenberg, with- 
out the eastern gate, near the Holy Cross, all the 
books of the pope, the decree, the decretals, the 
recent bull of Leo X.," and several other w r orks, 
as Eck's, and Emser's, "in order that the incen- 
diary papists may see that it requireth no great 
power to burn books which they cannot refute." 

Notwithstanding Luther's progress and increas- 
ing confidence in the truth, and the diffusion of 
his sentiments among the educated and intelligent 
classes, storms of still greater violence from with- 
out seemed to be fast gathering against him. The 
mild and candid Emperor Maximilian had died ; 
the interregnum during which Frederic was vicar 
of the empire had also passed away, and the new 
emperor, Charles V., w T ho was elected the second 
day of the Leipsic disputation, and whose protec- 
tion Luther sought in a patriotic but humble 



324 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1520. 



letter, showed signs of displeasure and hostility. 
Duke George of Saxony, the Bishops of Bran- 
denburg, Meissen, Merseburg, and the Universi- 
ties of Leipsic, Cologne, Louvain, and even Paris, 
became Luther's bitter enemies ; and now the pope 
had excommunicated him, and called on kings and 
princes to treat him as a heretic, and deliver him 
up to the papal emissaries. While these perils 
were coming on, Luther found new and unex- 
pected support in the old chivalric spirit of cer- 
tain Franconian knights. As early as May 13, 
1520, he wrote to Spalatin : " Day before yester- 
day, I received a message from Silvester von 
Schaumburg, a Franconian nobleman, . . . offering 
me protection, if in any way the elector is endan- 
gered on my account. Though I do not despise 
this, yet will I rely on no protector but Christ, 
who hath, perhaps, put this into his mind." The 
knight hoped he would not think of going to Bo- 
hemia for safety, " For," he adds, " I, myself, and 
about a hundred other nobles, whom, with God's 
permission, I will gather around me, will honour- 
ably maintain you and defend you against all 
danger." 

Francis von Sickingen, the magnanimous and 
powerful leader of the Franconian knights, re- 
peatedly sent similar messages to Luther, inviting 
him to one of his castles a little south of Mainz. 
Ulrich von Hutten also, that fiery spirit, who kin- 
dled such a popular hatred against the Boman 
court and Boman tyranny, openly espoused Lu- 
ther's cause. Luther wished the elector to let 
the cardinal, who had written to him, know, "that 



JE. 85-36.] WORKS ON PRACTICAL RELIGION. 325 

even should they succeed in their abominable 
measures to drive him from Wittenberg, they 
would accomplish nothing, save to make bad 
worse ; for not only in Bohemia, but in the very 
heart of Germany, are to be found those who can 
and will, despite their malice, protect me against 
all their fulminations. . . . With me the die is 
cast; I despise alike the frownings and fawnings 
of Rome. I will never be reconciled with them, 
nor have part with them, let them condemn and 
burn my writings as they will." But Luther did 
not approve of appealing to the sword. He wrote 
in 1521 to Spalatin: "What Hutten hath in 
mind you see. I desire not that the gospel be 
made to prevail by violence and bloodshed, and 
so I have replied to him. The world hath been 
overcome by the word ; by the word the church 
hath been sustained." 




28 



326 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1520. 



CHAPTER III. 



LUTHER AND THE DIET OF WORMS. 



Section I. — Luther summoned to appear at Worms ; and his 
Journey thitlier. 



was beset with so many difficulties as that which 
related to the claims of the church of Rome. 
Not only were the religious sentiments of many 
changed by the writings of Luther, but the Ger- 
man princes and statesmen had long felt the gall- 
ing yoke of Roman tyranny, and were desirous 
of freeing themselves both from ecclesiastical rule 
and from the enormous tribute paid under various 
forms to the church of Rome. 

The papal legate Aleander, and others in the 
interests of the pope, used their utmost influence 




HE new emperor, 
Charles V., who was 
in Spain at the time 
of his election, did 
not reach Germany 



- ^ till toward the close 



■T^ of 1520. Early in 
S^^W]1521 he held his 
W H first diet at Worms. 
|«V m \ No business that 
V? j| ^ as to occupy the 
attention of the diet 



m> 37.] 



SUMMONED TO WORMS. 



327 



to have the books of Luther burned by authority 
of the emperor. The latter had learned that the 
Elector of Saxony was not pleased with this pro- 
cedure, — that he pronounced it unjust to condemn 
books to the flames which had not yet been proved 
to be false or heretical. On the 28th of Novem- 
ber, 1520, therefore, Charles wrote to the elector, 
requesting him to bring Luther with him to the 
diet of Worms, that he might cause him to be 
examined before learned and able judges. At the 
same time, the elector was requested to see that 
Luther should write nothing against his holiness 
the pope, or the church of Rome. 

Frederic replied, December 20, that while Lu- 
ther's books, without being first refuted, had been 
burnt at Cologne and Mainz, Luther himself might 
have done something, [burnt the pope's bull and 
the decretals,] so that it would be difficult for him 
to appear at Worms. At the same time, however, 
the elector directed his secretary, Spalatin, to 
write to Luther, inquiring whether he would be 
willing to go, in case the emperor should insist on 
it. Luther replied, December 21 : " If I shall be 
summoned, I will, so far as it dependeth on me, 
be carried there sick, in case I be not well, sooner 
than refuse; for, without doubt, I am called of 
God, if called by the emperor. If they intend 
to settle these matters by bare authority alone, as 
it seemeth, (for they have not probably produced 
this summons with a view to convince me,) then 
must the case be commended unto God. He still 
liveth and ruleth who preserved the three men in 
the fiery furnace. If he will not keep me, then 



328 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



my head is of little account, compared with the 
ignominious death of Christ, which was an offence 
to all, and the falling of many. For here we 
must havG no regard to danger or safety, but 
rather see that we do not betray the gospel, 
which we have once received, and give it over 
to the contempt of the wicked, and our enemies 
have occasion to say, that we are afraid to ac- 
knowledge what we teach, and to shed our blood 
therefor, which disgrace on our part, and proud 
boasting on theirs, may God avert. . . . We can- 
not tell whether by our life, or by our death, 
more or less danger may accrue to the gospel. 
You know that divine truth is a rock of offence, 
set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel. 
Let it be our only care to pray unto God that 
the commencement of our emperor's reign be not 
stained with my blood, or that of any other man, 
in order to defend wickedness. As I have often 
said, I would rather perish by the hands of the 
Romanists, than that the emperor and his court 
should be involved in such an act." 

The Roman party were strongly opposed to 
Luther's examination before the diet, as it would 
imply that one already condemned by the pope 
might still have a trial before a secular tribunal. 
They had procured a second bull from Rome, in 
which Luther was unconditionally excommuni- 
cated, and they made use of this as an argument 
to divert the emperor from his purpose, and suc- 
ceeded so far as to induce him to write again to 
the Elector Frederic, and say to him, that, unless 
Luther was prepared to retract, he need not come, 



tE. 37. J 



SUMMONED TO WORMS. 



329 



and at any rate, that he might come no farther 
than to Frankfurt, and there await further orders. 
But the elector prudently replied, that he himself 
was already on his way to Worms, and that he 
would there confer with the emperor on the whole 
matter. Meanwhile, he wrote to Luther, direct- 
ing him to say how far he could comply with the 
emperor's orders. 

The emperor viewed every thing through a 
political medium; truth and justice yielded to con- 
siderations of advantage. His advisers wished to 
moderate Luther, in order to make use of him in 
their negotiations with Rome. The two Roman 
nuncios, particularly Aleander, an intriguing man, 
resorted to bribery and every low art, in order 
to engage the emperor in their interest and secure 
his power against Luther. The emperor saw here 
the means of forcing the pope to support his policy 
against France, and determined to sacrifice Luther, 
but not without first securing every possible ad- 
vantage. The princes did not enter into these 
views of Charles, but added their complaints to 
Luther's in respect to Roman tyranny, and there- 
fore checked the emperor, though they were al- 
together disinclined to favour Luther's religious 
doctrines. The transactions at Worms all grew 
out of these conflicting interests, and form a singu- 
lar series of intrigues and manoeuvres, in order to 
reconcile and adjust them so as to secure the ends 
contemplated in the emperor's policy. Hence, the 
movements, counter-movements and suspensions, 
which checker and confuse the proceedings of the 
diet. 



330 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



During all these negotiations, in which Luther's 
safety was involved, he was labouring on, at Wit- 
tenberg, as zealously and as laboriously as if 
there were nothing to disturb his mind. He said 
in a letter to his friend Pellican, at Basle, who 
was superintending the printing of some of his 
books published there, "I am exceedingly occu- 
pied with business. I preach twice every day; 
I am engaged in writing my Commentary on the 
Psalms ; I am working on the postils ; I am fight- 
ing against the papal bull both in German and 
Latin, and defending myself against attacks ; not 
to mention the letters I must write to my friends, 
and the conferences which I hold at home and 
elsewhere." When the citation and the safe-con- 
duct from the emperor were brought to Luther by 
a herald sent to accompany him, Luther was in 
the very midst of those labours. Hence he apolo- 
gized to Prince John Frederic, to whom he dedi- 
cated his commentary on the song of Mary at the 
annunciation, for sending him only a part of it, 
saying, " The remainder must be put off till my 
return; for you see that, being summoned to the 
imperial diet, I must drop every thing." Various 
expressions of his, both at this time and after- 
ward, show that he expected his fate would, in 
all probability, be like that of Huss, and that he 
should never return alive to Wittenberg. Still he 
was not without hope. The straight-forward and 
honest, the bold and yet skilful movements of Lu- 
ther, the prudence and increasing solicitude of 
the elector, the jealousy of the diet against the 
Roman nuncios and Italian intrigue, and the hesi- 



M. 37.] 



SUMMONED TO WORMS. 



331 



tancy of the emperor, a mere political calculator, to 
commit himself openly to the pope at the risk of of- 
fending the Elector of Saxony and his friends, these 
were the chief means employed by Providence for 
the preservation of Luther at this critical juncture. 

The imperial herald, Caspar Sturm of Oppen- 
heim, reached Wittenberg, March 26th, and Lu- 
ther commenced his journey about the 2d of 
April, the council of Wittenberg providing a 
conveyance for him. Amsdorf, Scheurl, and two 
or three other friends accompanied him. At 
Leipsic, he was merely treated to wine by the 
authorities, which was regarded as a cold recep- 
tion, the same which he received at the Leipsic 
disputation. At Naumburg, the burgomaster en- 
tertained him and the herald*; and a priest sent 
him a likeness of Savonarola, an Italian reformer 
and martyr, and exhorted him to stand firmly by 
the truth, for God would be with him and uphold 
him. At Weimar, he was hospitably received by 
Duke John Frederic, brother and afterward suc- 
cessor of the elector. Here he received intelli- 
gence that his books had been already condemned 
at Worms, and saw the messengers who were to 
publish the imperial mandate in the cities. The 
condemnation of Luther, to which the emperor 
had once assented, w^as, at the remonstrance of 
the German princes, put off, and only the seizure of 
his books was insisted on then. The herald asked 
him if he wished still to proceed, to which Luther re- 
plied in the affirmative. Prince John furnished him 
with money to defray the expenses of his journey. 

At Erfurt, Luther w T as welcomed with great 



332 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



pomp and ceremony. Crotus, then rector of the 
university, and the poet Eoban Hess, and others, 
to the number of forty, on horseback, and a 
great multitude on foot, came out eight miles 
from the city to escort him in. The streets of the 
city were thronged when he entered ; and, at the 
request of many, he consented to preach in the 
Augustinian cloister, where he had once suffered 
so much. Here Justus Jonas, formerly a student 
at Wittenberg, but now professor at Erfurt, joined 
Luther and his party. At Grotha, also, he yielded 
to the urgency of the people and preached. At 
Eisenach he was taken very ill, and did not en- 
tirely recover till after he reached Frankfurt, 
from which place he wrote to Spalatin, April 
14th: "We have arrived here, my dear Spala- 
tin, although Satan hath endeavoured to hinder 
me by more diseases than one. For all the way 
from Eisenach I was sick, and am still so, more 
than I ever was before. I hear the mandate of 
Charles is published for the purpose of terrifying 
me. But Christ liveth, and I will enter Worms 
in spite of all the gates of hell and the powers of 
the air." Many undertook to dissuade him from 
his purpose ; his friends did it out of regard to 
his safety; his enemies to avoid discussion before 
the diet. It was said to him at one -time that he 
would be burned to powder, as Huss was at Con- 
stance; to which he answered: "Though they 
kindle a fire all the way between Wittenberg and 
Worms that shall reach unto the heavens, I will, 
in the name of the Lord, appear, inasmuch as I 
am summoned, and come between the great teeth 



JE. 37.] 



SUMMONED TO WORMS 



338 



of the behemoth and confess Christ, and let him 
rule." 

At the special instance of the emperor's confes- 
sor, who still, perhaps for good political reasons, 
hoped to effect a reconciliation, Bucer was sent by 
Francis von Sickingen from his castle at Ebern- 
burg, inviting him to meet at that retired place 
such men as Charles should send to confer with 
him. But Luther, determined not to be turned 
aside by frowns or flatteries, and knowing that 
the time of his safe-conduct would soon expire, 
replied coolly, "If the emperor's confessor hath 
any thing to say unto me, he can say it at Worms," 
and proceeded on his way. At Oppenheim, 
toward Worms, he received a warning from Spa- 
latin, who was with the elector at Worms, not to 
venture into the city ; to which he made the well- 
known reply : " If there were as many devils in 
Worms as there are tiles on the roofs of the 
houses, I w T ould still go thither." Just before 
the close of his life, referring to this courageous 
state of feeling, he said : " I was then intrepid, 
and feared nothing. God can make one as it were 
beside himself. I do not know that I should be 
so confident now." " To-day," [i. e. April 16,] 
says an eye-witness, " came Doctor Martin hither, 
in an open Saxon vehicle, in company with three 
other persons, namely, a brother* of his, Nicholas 

* This was his brother Jacob Luther, who was with him also when 
he was seized and carried to Wartburg. Seckendorf, by an un- 
happy conjecture, explained the word brother as meaning a monk, 
and other writers have blindly followed him. So, too, have these 
writers made Von Suaven (Latinized, Suabenius) a Danish, instead 
of a Pomeranian nobleman. 



334 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



Amsdorf, and a Pomeranian nobleman by the name 
of Von Suaven. Before the carriage rode the im- 
perial herald, on horseback and in livery with 
the imperial escutcheon, attended by his servant. 
Justus Jonas and his servant followed next to 
Luther. Many nobles and courtiers went out to 
meet him. At ten o'clock he entered the city, 
and more than two thousand persons escorted him 
to his quarters." He stopped at a hotel called 
" The German Court," where the elector had pro- 
vided lodgings for him. Two Saxon nobles of 
Frederic's court, and Pappenheim, the imperial 
marshal, lodged at the same place with Luther. 



Section II. — Luther before the Diet; his Return and 
Capture. 

Early the next morning, the marshal Pappen- 
heim and the herald were sent with an order from 
the emperor, requiring Luther to appear before 
him and the diet, at four o'clock in the afternoon, 
to answer to the matters that should then be pre- 
sented. The interval of several hours was one 
of intense anxiety ; and it was on that occasion 
that he made the memorable prayer which has 
been recorded, and is to be found in the histories 
of the Reformation. 

In order to understand Luther's position before 
the diet at Worms, we must glance at what had 
been done there previous to his arrival. Janu- 
ary 16, just three months before Luther's entrance 
into the city, the elector wrote from Worms to 



m. 37.] 



BEFORE THE DIET. 



335 



his brother John, thus : " Every day as I am 
informed, consultations are held against Doctor 
Martin, to put him under the ban of excommu- 
nication and outlawry, and to persecute him to 
the utmost. This, they of the red hat and the 
Romans with their party, do labour at. But 
there are many who regard him with favour." 
Leo X. wrote to Charles V. a letter dated Rome, 
January 18, but which did not come before the 
diet till February 13, in which he says, that as 
Luther had failed to appear at Eome to answer 
to his summons, he, the pope, had declared him 
a notorious heretic. Having learned through his 
nuncio that his imperial majesty was inclined to 
maintain the Catholic faith, he now implored him 
to issue a general edict that Luther, unless he 
retract his errors, suffer the penalties due to a 
heretic. February 13, the nuncio, Aleander, pre- 
sented the apostolical brief above mentioned, and 
seconded its suggestions by an elaborate but 
haughty speech against Luther, beseeching the 
diet not to bear with the man, who was calling 
back from hell Huss and Jerome of Prague, who 
had been condemned and burnt. Glapio, confes- 
sor of the emperor, had several interviews with 
Pontanus, the elector's chancellor, during the 
month of February, seeking to effect a reconci- 
liation by inducing Luther to renounce the errors 
and hard sayings contained in his work on the 
Babylonian Captivity. These errors he pointed 
out, to the number of thirty-two. Glapio admit- 
ted that the Roman party daily belaboured the 
emperor to carry into effect the suggestions of 



336 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



the papal brief, but that he had thus far mani- 
fested an unwillingness to do so. Still we find 
a draft of an imperial edict against Luther's writ- 
ings, and against his person, unless he should re- 
tract, as early as the 10th of February. This 
draft was laid before the diet, together with 
the three following questions: 1. Whether Luther 
should be called to have a hearing — to Worms, or 
to .some other place in the vicinity? 2. Whether 
his books, being full of heresy, ought not forth- 
with to be burned and destroyed? 3. Whether, 
in case he should choose not to appear, or, ap- 
pearing, would not renounce his errors, he should 
then be punished as a heretic? 

The diet, near the beginning of March, replied 
that, having taken the edict and questions laid 
before them into consideration, 1. They must 
warn the emperor of the dangers of attempting 
by a new edict to quell the excitement produced 
by Luther's preaching and writings ; and, 2. They 
approve of citing Luther to appear at Worms under 
a safe-conduct, not however to discuss the points 
at issue, but simply to reply to the questions 
whether he would retract or not. When Luther 
was informed by Spalatin of these counsels, he 
replied that he would not go to Worms for such 
a purpose as that; he could as well answer the 
question in Wittenberg as in Worms ; and that he 
would never retract. The emperor informed the 
diet that he should proceed according to their 
advice. 

After all this, and after Luther had (March 
26) received his citation and safe-conduct, (dated 



M. 37.] 



BEFORE THE DIET. 



337 



March 6,) the emperor, nevertheless, issued his 
edict against Luther's books, omitting that part 
which related to his person. This unjust and 
violent procedure, designed to prejudice the popular 
mind and to terrify the friends ol Luther, induced 
the latter, and particularly Spalatin and the elector, 
to dissuade Luther from presenting himself for trial 
after his books were already condemned by the 
emperor. 

We learn the state of feeling among Luther's 
friends, from a document of Pontanus, in which 
he recounts the considerations on both sides in 
respect to the safety of Luther's presenting him- 
self under these circumstances. The chief objec- 
tions were, that the cause was virtually prejudged, 
and that his safe-conduct would be no security, if 
he should refuse to retract, and should therefore 
be declared a heretic. There were in fact princes 
who were not ashamed to say that the emperor 
was not bound to keep his word with a heretic. 
But the house of Saxony and others rejected 
such a suggestion with scorn and with threats. 
The reasons urged by Pontanus in favour of Lu- 
ther's coming were, that the edict itself, though 
it stated that Luther was cited to answer to the 
question whether he would retract what he had 
written or not, still expressly speaks of the safe- 
conduct to Worms and back again, without condi- 
tions or any reference to the kind of answer that 
should be given; and that Luther's enemies would 
desire nothing better than to be able to say that 
he had not confidence to appear for trial. Lu- 
ther knew the whole case perfectly, <\nd decided 

29 



338 



LIFE OF LUTHEK. 



[1521. 



with wisdom as consummate as his courage. It 
was here at Worms that he opened the eyes of 
many of the rulers of Germany, and actually 
drove a wedge which split the diet into two reli- 
gious parties, not for many centuries to be again 
united. The scene which was opened at Worms 
did not close till the end of the Thirty Years 1 
War, when the Protestants wrung from the Ca- 
tholics a political equality. 

When the hour arrived, Ulrich von Pappen- 
heim and Caspar Sturm came and conducted him 
first to the Swan, the quarters of the Elector of 
the Palatinate, whence he was conveyed through 
secret passages to the Guild-hall, to avoid the 
concourse which had thronged the way from Lu- 
ther's lodgings to the emperor's quarters. Many 
had climbed upon the house-tops to see Dr. Martin 
as he passed. As he was about to enter the hall, 
Freundsberg, a celebrated military commander, 
tapped him on the shoulder, and said, " Monk ! 
monk ! thou art about to make a passage and 
occupy a post more perilous than any which I 
and many other commanders ever knew in the 
bloodiest battle-fields. If thou art in the right 
and sure of your ground, go on in God's name 
and fear not ; God will not forsake thee." Even 
after he had entered the hall, where, according 
to the account of George Vogler, an eye-witness, 
not less than five thousand were assembled, in- 
cluding those in the galleries and windows and 
about the doors, many persons ventured to ap- 
proach him and speak to him words of encourage- 
ment, saying to him, " Speak manfully, and be not 



M. 37.] 



BEFORE THE DIET. 



339 



afraid of them who kill the body, but have no 
power over the soul." He was instructed by 
Pappenheim to say nothing but when he was 
called upon. 

Now the imperial orator, Dr. John Eck, (not 
the theologian, but the official or secular agent 
of the Archbishop of Treves,) addressed him, at 
the emperor's order, in Latin, and then in Ger- 
man, saying that he had been called before the 
imperial diet to answer to these two questions : 
" First, whether you acknowledge these books [a 
large pile of which lay on the table] to be your's 
or not ; secondly, whether you will retract them 
and their contents, or whether you will adhere to 
them still." 

Before Luther replied, Schurf, his counsellor, 
said, " Let the titles of the books be read." Then 
the official read over the titles, among which were, 
Exposition of certain Psalms, Treatise on Good 
Works, Explanation of the Lord's Prayer, and 
others which were not of a polemical character. 

Luther then answered, both in Latin and in 
German, " First, I must acknowledge the books 
just named to be mine, and can never deny them. 
But touching the next point, whether I will main- 
tain all these, or retract them, seeing it is a ques- 
tion of faith and of one's salvation and of the word 
of God, which is the greatest treasure in heaven 
and earth, and deserving at all times our highest 
reverence, it would be rash and perilous for me 
to speak inconsiderately, and affirm, without re- 
flection, either more or less than is consistent 
with truth ; for in either case I should fall under 



340 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



the sentence of Christ, c He that denieth me 
before men, him will I deny before my Father 
which is in heaven.' Therefore I beg of your 
imperial majesty time for reflection, that I may 
be able to reply to the question proposed with- 
out prejudice to the word of God, or to my own 
salvation." 

Hereupon the diet consulted, and returned a 
reply through the official, " That although thou 
mightest have known from the imperial summons 
for what purpose thou wast cited, and dost not 
deserve the grant of further time for considera- 
tion, yet his imperial clemency granteth thee one 
more day." 

Whether we consider the serious nature of the 
transaction, or the impression to be made upon 
such a national assembly, we shall perceive that 
Luther judged wisely in making such a request. 
The solemn suspense only heightened the solici- 
tude of the multitude to hear the result. 

As he was conducted to his quarters, he re- 
ceived many benedictions from the people, and 
nobles came to his lodgings and encouraged him. 
What his feelings were at this moment, we learn 
from a letter to Cuspinian, in which he says, " I 
have this very hour been standing before the em- 
peror and his brother Ferdinand, and been asked 
whether I would retract my writings. I an- 
swered, ' The books laid before me are mine ; but 
concerning the revocation, I will say what I will 
do to-morrow.' This is all the time I asked for deli- 
beration, and all that they would give. But, Christ 
being gracious to me, I will not retract an iota." 



JE. 37.] 



BEFORE THE DIET. 



341 



About this time he received letters of encou- 
ragement from Ulrich von Hutten, the warrior- 
poet and patriot. He addressed a letter from 
Ebernburg, April 15, " to his holy friend, the in- 
vincible theologian and evangelist. Fight cou- 
rageously for Christ," he says, "and yield not to 
wrong, but go forth confidently to meet it. En- 
dure as a good soldier of Jesus, and suffer that 
the gift which is in you may be called out, and 
be assured that He on whom you have believed 
can preserve what you have committed to him till 
that day. I also will take strong hold of the 
work ; but there is this difference in our under- 
takings, that mine is human, while you, far more 
perfect, cleave wholly to divine things." 

On the following day, Thursday, the 18th, at 
four o'clock in the afternoon, the herald called 
again for Luther, and conducted him to the empe- 
ror's court, where, on account of the engagements 
of the princes, he was obliged to stand waiting 
until six o'clock, with an immense crowd, which 
was gathered to hear his answer. The lamps 
were already lighted in the council hall. When 
the princes were ready to hear him, and Luther 
was standing before them, the official called on 
him to answer to the questions laid before him 
the previous clay. Luther made his statement 
and defence in German, with modesty and calm- 
ness, but, at the same time, with a confidence and 
firmness that sui^rised those who expected no- 
thing but a recantation. After bespeaking the 
indulgence of the diet, if, from his monastic and 
retired habits, he should fail in respect to any of 

29* 



342 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521 



the customary proprieties of courtly address, he 
observed that his published works were not all of 
the same character. In some he had treated of 
faith and works of piety with such plainness and 
Christian simplicity that even his enemies were 
obliged to confess their harmlessness, usefulness 
and worth. To retract these would be to con- 
demn the truth which all parties confessed. The 
second class of his works were directed against 
the papacy and the Papists, as corrupting with 
their teaching and example all Christendom, both 
in body and soul. No one can deny nor conceal 
that by the papal laws and teachings of man, the 
consciences of Christians are held in bondage, 
burdened and tormented, and that goods and pos- 
sessions, especially in Germany, are devoured by 
their incredible tyranny. They themselves have 
ordained in their own decrees, that the laws and 
doctrines of the pope which are contrary to the 
gospel and the teachings of the Fathers be re- 
garded as erroneous. Were he to revoke this 
class of his books, he would but contribute to 
the strength of tyranny, and leave open, not only 
a window, but a door and a gate to wickedness, 
wider than ever ; and by his testimony, espe- 
cially if extorted by his imperial majesty and the 
whole German nation, their unchecked tyrannical 
rule would be strengthened in its foundations. 
The third class of his books were personal, and 
written against those who undertook the defence 
of Roman tyranny and the overthrow of the di- 
vine doctrines which he had inculcated. Against 
these he had. he confessed, been more violent 



.E. 37.] 



BEFORE THE DIET. 



343 



than was becoming. He did not set himself up 
for a saint, and disputed with his opponents not 
about his own life, but about the doctrines of 
Christ. But even these books he could not re- 
voke, because he would thereby give his influence 
in favour of Koman tyranny, which would tram- 
ple on the people's rights more mercilessly than 
ever. 

But as he was a man, and not God, he could 
not do for his books otherwise than Christ did 
for his doctrines, who, when questioned in re- 
spect to them by Annas, and smitten on his cheek 
by the servant, said, "If I have spoken wrong, 
then show it to be wrong." " Therefore," said 
he, "by the mercy of God, I beg your imperial 
majesty, or any one else who can, whoever he 
may be, to bring forward proof against me, and 
overcome me by the writings of the apostles and 
prophets. And then, if I am shown to be in 
error, I will be ready and willing to retract, and 
will be the first to cast my books into the fire." 
But we cannot attempt to present even an outline 
of this address. When it was ended, he was 
requested, for the sake of the emperor and his 
Spanish court and others who did not understand 
German, to repeat it in Latin. Though exhausted 
with the effort he had made, he consented to go 
over the ground again and rehearse the whole 
matter in Latin. 

When he had finished, the imperial orator ac- 
cused him of evading the point in question, and 
demanded that, instead of debating on articles 
which the councils had long ago settled, he should 



344 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



give a plain and direct answer, whether he would 
retract or not. To this Luther replied: "Since 
your imperial majesty and lordships desire a direct 
answer, I will give one, which has neither horns 
nor teeth; and it is this: Unless I shall be con- 
vinced by the testimony of Scripture, or by clear 
and plain argument, (for I do not believe either in 
the pope or in the councils alone, because it is 
plain and evident they have often erred and con- 
tradicted each other,) I am held by those pas- 
sages which I have cited, and am bound by my 
conscience and by the word of God, and therefore 
I may not — cannot retract, inasmuch as it is nei- 
ther safe nor right to violate my conscience. Here 
I stand, and cannot do otherwise, God be my 
help, Amen." 

The electors and other members of the diet took 
the reply into consideration, whereupon Eck, the 
official of the Archbishop of Treves, took upon 
him to refute Luther, and to rebuke his immo- 
desty. Luther rejoined, reaffirming and main- 
taining his positions, and entreated the emperor 
not to force a man to violate his conscience which 
was held bound by the authority of Scripture. 

The next day, Friday, April 19, the emperor 
sent a written communication to the council of 
state, saying, that as Luther would not yield nor 
move a finger's breadth from his errors, he, the 
emperor, must follow in the footsteps of his pre- 
decessors, and maintain and protect the Catholic 
religion, and inflict the penalty upon Luther if he 
should choose to come under the ban. But, as a 
safe-conduct had been granted him, this must not 



JE. 37.] 



BEFORE THE DIET. 



345 



be violated. He must first be allowed to return 
to his home. The remainder of that day and the 
whole of the following Saturday were consumed 
by the diet in deliberating upon this declaration 
of the emperor. In the mean time placards were 
stuck up, intimating that not less than four hun- 
dred knights had leagued together for the protec- 
tion of Luther. Von Hutten and Yon Sickingen 
were supposed to be the leaders. 

Monday, the 2 2d, early in the morning, the 
Archbishop of Treves sent for Luther to come to 
his quarters and meet several princes there, in a 
friendly conference. It was done, but all to no 
effect, both parties adhering to their principles. 
A private interview, which immediately suc- 
ceeded, between the archbishop, Eck and Coch- 
lseus on the one hand, and Luther, Schurf and 
Amsdorf on the other, was attended with no bet- 
ter success. Several other similar attempts were 
made to move Luther from his purpose, but with- 
out effect; and finally he was dismissed by the 
emperor with a safe-conduct extending to twenty 
days, with directions to refrain from agitating the 
minds of the people either by preaching or by 
writing. Luther submitted to the order without 
opposition, except that he claimed the right freely 
to confess and to teach the word of God. 

The Elector Frederic was not displeased with 
the manner in which Luther acquitted himself on 
this extraordinary occasion. He had, even before 
Luther's arrival in Worms, expressed a desire to 
do something to protect him from unreasonable 
treatment. After Luther's address before the 



346 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



diet, the elector said to Spalatin, "The father, 
Dr. Martin, hath spoken well in Latin and Ger- 
man before the emperor, the princes and the 
estates. It was a hold step he took." " If it 
were in my power," he said afterward, "I would 
gladly procure justice for him." Such feelings 
led to the project of concealing him in the castle 
of Wartburg, and putting him under the protec- 
tion of the commander of that place. The plan 
of a friendly capture was communicated to Luther 
the evening before he left Worms, and to his com- 
panion Amsdorf, though the time and place were 
unknown to them. 

A graphic outline of the transactions at Worms 
is given by Luther in a letter to Albert of 
Mansfeld, written May 3, at Eisenach, the day 
before he was taken and carried to Wartburg. 
After the usual salutation, and an allusion to the 
count's request that Luther would send by a spe- 
cial messenger an account of the proceedings 
respecting him, he says, "First, my arrival at 
Worms was altogether unexpected. Therefore a 
prohibition was sent, and I, while under the im- 
perial safe-conduct, was condemned before I came 
to the place or had a hearing. Afterward, that I 
might be quickly disposed of, I was asked whe- 
ther I would cleave to my books or renounce 
them. Whereupon I replied as your grace hath, 
no doubt, already heard. Immediately the em- 
peror, imbittered against me, issued a severe man- 
date and sent it to the estates of the empire. . . . 
Then certain persons were chosen out of the diet 
to admonish me, in a gracious and friendly way, 



IE. 37.] 



BEFORE THE DIET. 



347 



to submit my books to the judgment of the em- 
peror and of the diet. They were the Bishop of 
Treves, Margrave Joachim [of Brandenburg,] 
Duke George of Saxony, the Bishop of Augsburg, 
the Teutonic Master, the Bishop of Brandenburg, 
Count George of Wertheim and two deputies from 
the free cities. Then a doctor [Vehus,] chan- 
cellor of the Margrave of Baden, arose and gave 
unto me such a fine and well-arranged admonition, 
that I must confess the official of Treves, who 
spoke before the emperor, cannot hold a candle to 
him. . . . When they foiled to produce any effect 
upon me, the Archbishop of Treves called me, 
Dr. Schurf and Amsdorf, and also his official and 
Cochlseus, before him apart. But it was an un- 
profitable dispute, and led to no good result. . . . 
Afterward the Chancellor [Vehus] of Baden and 
Peutinger were sent to me to persuade me to 
submit my books unconditionally to the emperor. 
... I put it to their consciences whether they 
could advise me to commit myself wholly to the 
emperor and others who had already condemned 
me and burnt my books. . . . After this, the 
Archbishop of Treves sent for me to see him 
alone. He showed himself in this affair very 
kind and more than gracious, and would gladly 
have quelled the difficulty. He set the matter 
again before me, and I answered as before, for I 
could not do otherwise, and so he dismissed me. 
Soon after came the official, with a count, the im- 
perial chancellor, as a notary, saying to me in the 
emperor's name, that inasmuch as I did not recede 
from my purpose, I must return with twenty days 



348 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



safe-conduct, and his imperial majesty would after- 
ward do with me what was proper. I thanked his 
majesty, and said, 'As it hath pleased the Lord, 
so it is done. Blessed be the name of the Lord.' 
They enjoined it upon me not to preach or write 
by the way. I replied, 'I will do all that his 
majesty pleases, but the word of God I will have 
unbound, as St. Paul says.' Thus I parted with 
them, and am now at Eisenach." 

Several days before, April 28, while at Frank- 
furt, he wrote to his friend Cranach, the painter: 
"I shall suffer myself to be taken and concealed, 
I do not myself know where. And though I 
would rather suffer death from the tyrants, espe- 
cially from the furious Duke George, nevertheless 
I must not despise the counsel of good friends, 
but must wait for the proper time. 

" My arrival at Worms was unexpected ; and 
how the safe-conduct was observed you all know 
from the prohibition which met me on the way. 
I had supposed his imperial majesty would have 
assembled about fifty doctors, and in a fair way 
have confuted the monk. But only thus much 
was done. 'Are these books yours?' 'Yes.' 
'Will you retract them or not?' 'No.' 'Away 
with you then.' blind Germans that we are ! 
How childishly we act and suffer the Romanists 
so miserably to make us play the ape and the fool. 
. . . Greet [professor and burgomaster] Beyer 
and his wife, and express my warm thanks to the 
council [of Wittenberg] for my conveyance [to 
Worms.] . . . Farewell. I commend you all to 
God, and may he keep the understanding and 



Wartburg Castle, and the seizure of Luther on his way from Worms. 

p. 315. 



M. 37.] 



BEFORE THE DIET. 



349 



faith of you all in Christ from the Roman wolves 
and dragons and their rabble." 

Luther left Worms, Friday, April 26th, at ten 
o'clock in the morning, and was overtaken at Op- 
penheim by the herald, who followed after him. 
The second day he went as far as Frankfurt, 
where, the next morning, he wrote the above- 
mentioned letter to Cranach. The third day he 
reached Friedberg, whence he sent one communi- 
cation to the emperor and another to the diet by 
the herald, whose company, in view of the elec- 
tor's project, was desired no farther. The fourth 
day he arrived at Grunberg, and the fifth at Hirs- 
feld, where he was received with great pomp. 
The sixth day, at night, he entered Eisenach, 
where, the next morning, he dismissed Schurf and 
his other travelling companions, except Amsdorf; 
while he himself and Amsdorf, after remaining 
another day, turned aside and went to Mora, on 
the other side of the Thuringian Forest, to visit 
his uncle and other relatives. The day following, 
a little beyond Altenstein, he was seized with 
feigned violence, and conveyed to Wartburg. 
He might easily have gone to this place when 
at Eisenach, but that would have divulged the 
secret. 

In the church records at Schweina, a little 
south of Altenstein, is found the following entry : 
"Saturday, May 4, 1521, between four and five 
o'clock in the afternoon, Dr. M. Luther passed 
through this place on his way from Worms, and 
was taken captive about a mile beyond Altenstein, 
near Luther's Fountain, on the road to Walters- 

30 



350 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



hausen, and carried to Wartburg." This is the 
most romantic part of the Thuringian Forest. 
Luther had followed the winding mountain road 
southward to Schweina, and was passing through 
a sandy hollow at the bend of the road south-east 
of Altenstein, when the commander of that place, 
the Knight von Hund, and Berlepsch, the com- 
mander of Wartburg, seized him, according to a 
preconcerted plan. As it was not yet sunset, and 
as the utmost secrecy was necessary, they left the 
road and wandered about the forest to the north 
and west, till they came to a spring and a beech 
tree in a narrow glen, about a hundred and twenty 
rods from the castle of Altenstein. Here they sat 
down and rested, and refreshed themselves with 
the pure water. The spring is still called Luthers- 
brunn, and the beech, (now six feet in diameter,) 
Luther sbuche. A centennial celebration was held 
there in 1817. 

In a letter to Spalatin, dated on the Mountain, 
[Wartburg,] May 14th, after speaking of "the 
papal yoke, which the people will no longer bear," 
and of his leisure time and his studies, he goes on 
to say : 66 The Abbot of Hirsfeld received me with 
a kindness which you would hardly believe. He 
sent his chancellor and his lord of the exchequer 
out five miles to meet me. He himself received 
me at his castle with a cavalcade, and accom- 
panied me into the town. Within the walls we 
were received by the senate. The abbot enter- 
tained us [Luther and his companions] sumptu- 
ously in the monastery, and put me into his own 
chamber. The next morning they compelled me 
to preach. It was in vain that I objected, on the 



M. 37.] CAPTURED NEAR ALTENSTEIN. 351 

ground that it might cost the abbot his regalia, 
inasmuch as the imperial party might say that it 
was a violation of public faith, they having for- 
bidden me to preach on the way. I indeed told 
him I did not consent that the word of God should 
be bound, and this was true. 

" I preached also at Eisenach ; but the timid 
parson was present with a notary and witnesses, 
protesting against it, and then excusing himself 
humbly, saying he did it out of fear of the tyrants 
which were over him. Perhaps you may hear at 
Worms [where Spalatin still remained] that I have 
herein not kept good faith; but it is not so. That 
the word of God should be bound was a condition 
wherein I had nothing to do, nor did I make any 
such promise ; and even if I had done so, inas- 
much as it is contrary to the will of God to make 
such promise, I should not be bound to keep it. 
The day following, the abbot accompanied us as 
far as to the [Thuringian] forest, and sent his 
chancellor forward to Berka to prepare a dinner 
for us. 

"At length we entered Eisenach at evening, 
under the escort of the people, [among whom were 
many of Luther's youthful acquaintances,] who 
came out on foot to meet us. In the morning, 
Schurf and all my other companions [except 
Amsdorf ] went on their way. I went across the 
mountain to visit my kindred, who inhabit that 
region. Leaving them and proceeding toward 
Waltershausen, soon after passing the castle of 
Altenstein, I was seized. Amsdorf necessarily 



352 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



knew that some one was to take me, but was 
ignorant of the place of my custody. 

" My brother, seeing the knights in season, 
leaped from the carriage, and, without taking 
leave of me, went on foot to Waltershausen, 
which he is said to have reached in the even- 
ing, [followed, at length, by Amsdorf and the 
affrighted driver with the carriage.] So here I 
am, my own attire being laid aside, and that of 
a knight being put upon me, with long hair [as 
monk, he wore his hair shorn in the form of a 
crown of thorns] and long beard, so that you 
would hardly know me. Indeed, I have not for 
some time known myself. Here I enjoy Chris- 
tian liberty, being set free from all the laws of 
that tyrant, though I would choose rather, if it 
were the will of God I should suffer for his 
word, that this Dresden swine [Duke George] 
should be thought worthy to put me to death 
for preaching publicly. The will of the Lord be 
done." 



M. 37.] 



AT WARTBURG. 



353 



CHAPTER IV. 

from luther's capture to the close of the peasants' 
war — 1521—1525. 

Section I. — Luther at Wartburg, May 4, 1521, to March 4, 
1522. 

T was more than 
a week before Lu- 
ther ventured to 
write any letters 
to his friends. On 
the 12th of May, 
he wrote one letter 
to Melancthon and 
another to Ams- 
dorf. The one last 
quoted, giving an 
account of his capture, was written two days 
later. To Amsdorf he says, "I wrote lately to 
you all, my dear Amsdorf, but, on listening to a 
better counsellor, I tore the letters in pieces, be- 
cause it was not yet safe to send them. . . . The 
Lord now visiteth me with severe illness, [arising 
from costiveness.] But pray for me, as I always 
pray for you, that God may strengthen your 
heart. Be courageous, therefore; and, as you 
have opportunity, speak the word of God with 
boldness. Write to me how it was with you in 
your journey, [from Altenstein to Wittenberg,] 

30* 




354 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



and what you heard and saw in Erfurt, [where 
a great excitement was created by the attentions 
paid to Luther on his way to Worms.] With 
Melancthon you will learn what Spalatin [still 
at Worms] hath written to me, [concerning the 
violent proceedings against me.] The day I was 
torn away from you, I, a new knight, weary from 
the length of the ride, [about eight miles,] came in 
the dark, nearly eleven o'clock at night, to this 
mansion. And now I am here in a state of 
leisure, like one set at large among captives. Be- 
ware of the Dresden Rehoboam [Duke George] 
and of Benhadad of Damascus, [the Elector of 
Brandenburg,] your neighbour. For a severe 
edict hath been issued against us. But the Lord 
shall hold them in derision." 

The Elector Frederic, in order to evade the 
questions with which the imperial and papal party 
would be likely to press him, kept himself igno- 
rant for a time of the particular place where Spa- 
latin, by his order, kept Luther in custody. We 
see, from the foregoing letter, that his keepers dis- 
suaded him from writing so soon to his friends, 
lest the secret in respect to his place of residence 
should be betrayed. To Spalatin he wrote, some 
time after : " I have with difficulty made out to 
send you this letter, such is the fear entertained 
that it will be found out where I am. Therefore, 
if you think it will be for the honour of Christ, 
let it not be known whether I am in the keeping 
of friend or foe ; for it is not necessary that any 
besides yourself and Amsdorf should know any 
thing more than that I am alive." 



JE. 37.] 



AT WARTBURG. 



355 



This design of concealment explains the indefi- 
nite and amusing manner in which he dated his 
letters. The above letter to Amsdorf is dated 
"In the Regions of the Air;" that written to 
Melancthon the same day, " In the Regions of the 
Birds ;" others, " From my Hermitage ;" " From 
the Isle of Patmos " Among the birds, which 
sing sweetly in the trees, and praise God with all 
their might, night and day." 

As late as the 10th of June, he wrote to Spala- 
tin : " It is the will of our gracious prince that 
my place of abode be not yet made known. 
Therefore, I do not write to him at all." Coch- 
lseus and others of the Catholic party supposed 
that Allstedt was the place of his concealment. 
A few of Luther's intimate friends had learned 
where he was ; but, in a letter written Septem- 
ber 10, we find him saying: "Duke John, the 
elder, at length knows where I am, but did not 
know before. My host privately made it known 
to him. But he will doubtless keep it to himself." 

Luther poured out his whole heart in his first 
letter to Melancthon, May 12, probably the very 
first letter written from Wartburg. It is particu- 
larly interesting as revealing the state of his mind 
in that singular posture of public affairs. He 
writes thus : " And what, my dear Philip, are you 
meanwhile doing ? Are you not praying that this 
withdrawal of myself, to which I have unwillingly 
given my assent, may turn out for the furtherance 
of the glory of God ? I greatly desire to know 
how it pleaseth you. I fear I shall be accounted 
a 9 deserting the field of battle, and yet I could find 



356 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



no way to resist those who desired and advised 
this course. I desire nothing more than to bare 
my breast to the fury of my enemies. Here I sit 
the whole day, with the visage of the church ever 
before me, and the passage, Psalm lxxxix. 47 : 
■ Why hast thou made all the sons of men in 
vain?' How horrible a form of God's anger is 
that abominable kingdom of the Roman antichrist ! 
I abhor my own hardness of heart that I am not 
dissolved in tears, and that I do not weep foun- 
tains of tears for the slain sons of my people. 
But there is no one to arise and cleave to God, 
and make himself a wall for the house of Israel 
in this last day of his wrath. 0, kingdom of the 
pope ! worthy of the end and dregs of the world. 
God have mercy on us. Wherefore, be thou 
meanwhile instant as a minister of the word, and 
fortify the walls and towers of Jerusalem, till they 
shall assail thee. You know your calling and 
gifts. I pray earnestly for you, if, as I doubt not, 
my prayer can be of any avail. Do thou the same 
for me, and let us mutually bear this burden. 
Thus far I alone have stood in the front of battle. 
They will next seek for your life." 

In another letter to the same, written May 26, 
he mentions, that, "having composed his mind to 
quiet studies, he had reluctantly replied to Jacob 
Latomus," a sophistical theologian of Louvain, 
who had written in defence of the burning of Lu- 
ther's books ; that he had seen what his friends 
Faber, (Ecolampadius, Hutten and others, had 
written against his opponents ; that he was him- 
self surprised at the boldness of Feldkirch, pro- 



M. 37.] 



AT WARTBURG. 



357 



vost of Kemberg, in venturing at such a time to 
show his opposition to the celibacy of the clergy 
by actually entering into wedlock. He is gene- 
rally represented as the first evangelical or Pro- 
testant clergyman who took this step ; but two 
others preceded him in Saxony, and were impri- 
soned for their temerity. 

Luther, though his personal situation was agree- 
able, proceeds to say : " Yet, for the glory of God, 
and for the confirmation of myself and others, I 
would sooner be burnt over live coals than decay 
alone half dead, not to say quite dead. But who 
knoweth whether, in this as in other cases, Christ 
will by such means effect a greater good ? We 
have always been talking about faith and hope in 
things not seen. Come, then, let us for once 
make some little trial, especially since it is of 
God's appointing, and not of our seeking. Even 
if I perish, the gospel will not perish, in which 
you are now my superior, and Elisha succeedeth 
Elias with a double measure of the Spirit, which 
may the Lord Jesus in mercy grant you. Amen. 
Therefore, be not sad, but sing unto the Lord 
songs in the night season, and I will join with 
you. . . . Let the men of Leipsic glory, for this is 
their hour. We must go out from our country, 
from our kindred, and from our father's house, 
and for a time sojourn in a strange land. ... I 
have not given up the hope of returning unto 
you, though I leave it to God to do what is good 
in his own eyes. 

" If the pope shall fall upon all those who 
think and feel with me, there will be no want of 



358 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



tumult in Germany. The sooner he does it, 
the sooner will he and his perish, and I return. 
God so arouseth the spirit of many and the hearts 
even of the multitude, that it seemeth not likely 
to me that the thing can be put down by power; 
or, if it be put down, it will rise again with 
ten-fold force." The remainder of the letter, 
full of special references to the circumstances of 
his Wittenberg friends, though of the greatest 
interest to the historian, must be omitted here. 

In another letter he says : " A certain Roman- 
ist hath written to the man of a red hat at Mainz : 
' We have lost Luther, as we desired ; but the 
people are so excited that I suspect we shall not 
save our lives, unless we seek for him everywhere 
with lighted candles, and bring him back.' He 
indeed joketh ; but what if the joke should turn 
out to be a serious matter V 

The situation of Luther during the ten months 
of his residence at Wartburg is of a highly ro- 
mantic character. The heroism he had lately 
shown, the perilous condition he was in when he 
left Worms, the mystery which hung about his 
present place of abode, all acted with visible 
effect upon the minds of the people. And now 
that we are let behind the curtain, his secluded 
life appears no less extraordinary than the won- 
derful missiles which, from his unknown retreat, 
he continually sent forth to the consternation of 
his adversaries. At one time we find him wan- 
dering for amusement, or picking wild berries, 
along the hill-sides and ravines east of the castle, 
toward St. George's gate, or the south gate of 



M. 37.] 



AT WARTBTJRG. 



359 



the city. Again, we see him out on a two-days' 
chase, busying himself with dogs and traps ; but 
finding, in the hare caught by himself, and wrapt 
in a garment to preserve him from the dogs — 
which nevertheless seized and destroyed him — 
an image of souls which others had endeavoured 
to save, but which Satan and the pope were seek- 
ing to murder. Now he rides in disguise, under 
the direction of a wary knight, to the neighbour- 
ing towns and villages, to Gotha, Erfurt, Rein- 
hardsbrunn and Marksuhl. At the last-mentioned 
place, about five miles to the south-west of Wart- 
burg, he saw his friends ; but knight George, as 
he was then called, was not recognised in his 
knight's dress and long beard and hair. At Rein- 
hardsbrunn, between Altenstein and Gotha, he 
was conducted hastily away by his guardian, when 
the latter perceived that his ward was known to 
the people. 

The state of Luther's mind, at this time, was 
as peculiar as were his external circumstances. 
He was like a vessel that had outridden the 
storm, and was now moored by a desolate island. 
The waves had not so far subsided but that they 
still rocked his bark with some degree of violence. 
Partly from over-excitement and exhaustion, partly 
from unwonted inactivity, and too good living for 
one of his monastic habits, he suffered painful ill- 
ness. It is not strange that he should, at times, 
be very much dejected. He complained of temp- 
tations sorer than he had ever experienced. This 
might all be so. But, when he tells of the devil's 
making such disturbance and noise about the pre- 



360 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



mises that it was necessary to speak to him, we 
may well suppose that a little medical treatment 
and the poisoning of the rats would have aided es- 
sentially in giving him quiet nights. 

It can hardly be doubted that his present seclu- 
sion was favourable to his character, both as a 
Christian and as a reformer. He needed time 
for reflection. Ever since he left the Erfurt con- 
vent, he had been very active, and often much 
excited by controversy. It was well that he 
could now commune with himself and with his 
God, and calmly contemplate the scene without. 
He had necessarily been much occupied with 
tearing down and destroying what was false ; he 
now had an opportunity to direct his mind steadily 
to what was true. The work of building up, 
which was soon to follow, was even more diffi- 
cult than that of destroying. 

At Wartburg, Luther, by translating the New 
Testament, made the best preparation for future 
usefulness. Not only did he hereby put the 
mightiest of Protestant weapons into the hands 
of all the people, and in that way do immense 
service to the Reformation, but, what was of no 
less importance, he obtained that familiarity with 
the whole of the New Testament, that thorough 
acquaintance with biblical Christianity, which 
made it possible for him to escape so many 
errors, and to . incorporate so much truth into 
his theological system. It is true, indeed, that 
on the subject of religious liberty his mind under- 
went a change. After his return to Wittenberg, 
and especially after the Peasants' War, he was less 



M. 37.] 



AT WAB-TBTJRG. 



361 



inclined than before to the freedom of the indi- 
vidual conscience in the interpretation of the Bible. 
Still, the progress he made in biblical knowledge 
and in digesting and arranging his various doc- 
trines, as they had been disconnectedly thrown 
out in his controversial and other writings, seems 
to have been almost indispensable to him at this 
time. 

Though Luther was so occupied with inward 
struggles and temptations, and with the labours 
of studying the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, 
he did not withdraw his interest or his view 
from the fortunes and the transactions of the re- 
ligious party of which he had become the leader. 
With his friends and former associates he kept up 
a diligent correspondence. He requested them to 
communicate to him all that was going on. He 
was accurately informed of the excitement that 
prevailed among the nobles ; of the disaffection 
of the common people toward their ecclesiastical 
rulers ; of the progress of his doctrines at home 
and abroad, and of the designs and plots of his 
enemies. In these circumstances, he was the 
constant counsellor of his Wittenberg and other 
friends, giving them instructions how to proceed 
in spreading the truth, and in warding off the 
attacks of the hostile party. He instructed Ams- 
dorf how to reply to Emser. He is consulted 
about the best manner of organizing the Witten- 
berg Gymnasium, or Grammar-school. He urges 
Spalatin to compel Melancthon to preach, saying, 
" How I wish Philip would preach to the people 
in the German language ! [he did not refuse to 

31 



362 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



lecture on the Sabbath to the students, in Latin.] 
. . . Since he is called of God, what matters it 
that he has not been called by the tyrannical 
bishops ? . . . But I know the temper and spirit 
of the man, that he will not yield to my entrea- 
ties. Therefore he must be compelled by the 
urgent demand of the whole [Wittenberg] church. 
Were I at Wittenberg, I should, as I think, move 
the senate and people to call on him to preach to 
them in German ; and I greatly desire you should 
take the matter in hand. You can carry the 
measure in the senate through the influence of 
Cranach and Bayer." 

He urged Justus Jonas, who, while at Worms 
with him, was made professor of canonical law at 
Wittenberg in place of Pollich deceased, to labour 
for the overthrow of the authority of the decretals, 
or laws of the pope. " Be an Aaron," he says to 
him, " clothed with sacred vestments, i. e. armed 
with the sacred Scriptures. Take the censer of 
prayer and go out to meet this destroyer, Place 
yourself in the very midst of the conflagration of 
the world, kindled by Rome, but soon to be ex- 
tinguished by the coming of our Saviour whom 
we expect. Teach your pupils, my brother, that 
those things which it is your office to teach [the 
canon law] are to be unlearned ; that whatsoever 
the pope and the papists enact and establish is 
to be avoided as a deadly poison. Since we are 
not able to remove this great evil by direct power, 
and are obliged to perform official service in these 
sacrilegious Babylonish provinces, it only remain- 
eth for us to regard them as the devastators and 



M. 87.] 



AT WARTBURG. 



363 



plunderers of our Jerusalem." He advised Spa- 
latin to favour the utter abrogation of the canon 
law. His host, Berlepsch, at Wartburg, had done 
well, he said, in treating this law as antiquated, 
and in prohibiting ecclesiastical jurisdiction. If 
the elector and other princes were not prepared 
to do as much, " let them, at least, take no notice 
of the courts and judges when they disregard the 
papal laws, for so will the abuse be insensibly cor- 
rected." 

Luther's writings during this period were both 
numerous and important. The principal are those 
against Latomus, a learned theologian of Louvain, 
and this was one of Luther's best productions ; 
against the University of Paris, which had given 
a judgment adverse to his cause ; and against 
Emser; besides treatises on auricular confession, 
on the celibacy of the clergy, on private mass, on 
the abolition of cloisters, and on communion in both 
kinds, Commentaries on certain Psalms, and Pos- 
tils on the Gospels. Perhaps the most charac- 
teristic of the productions of his pen during this 
period is the well known letter which he ad- 
dressed to Albert, Archbishop of Mainz. That 
prelate, as if triumphing in the decision of the 
diet of Worms and in the retirement of Luther 
from the scene of conflict, renewed the sale of 
indulgences at Halle, his favourite residence. Lu- 
ther, who was fully informed of what was done, 
felt his blood boil within him as in 1517, when 
Tetzel was the direct object of his attack. He 
set himself to compose a tract which should fall 
like a thunderbolt upon the head of the arch- 



364 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



bishop. But Spalatin and Melancthon, who had 
been visited on the subject, in a friendly way, by 
two distinguished individuals from Albert's court, 
thought it too bold for the circumstances, and 
Frederic feared it would disturb his relations with 
the emperor and the Catholic princes; and the 
work was not, at that time, printed. 

Luther reluctantly submitted, but, in place of 
publishing the pamphlet, he wrote the private 
letter above mentioned to the archbishop. If he, 
the archbishop, thought himself secure because 
Luther had retired from the scene, and supposed 
that, by the aid of the imperial authority, he 
could put down the monk, he would find himself 
mistaken. He himself would not fail to do what 
Christian love demanded, in spite of the gates of 
hell, not to mention popes, cardinals and bishops ; 
and therefore requested him to cease from deceiv- 
ing and plundering the people, and to act the part 
of a bishop, and not of a wolf; for it was noto- 
rious that indulgences were nothing but sheer 
knavery and fraud. The prelate would clo well 
to remember what a great fire had been kindled 
by a little, insignificant spark; how a despised 
monk had given the pope himself enough to clo; 
and, contrary to all expectation, carried his point 
so far, that what had been lost could never be 
retrieved, but, on the contrary, became worse and 
worse every day, so that God's hand must be re- 
cognised in the work. The same God still lives, 
and can resist and overcome a Cardinal of Mainz, 
though four emperors should undertake to protect 
him. That Divine hand took delight in breaking 



M 37.] 



AT WARTBURG. 



365 



down the cedars of Lebanon, and humbling the 
proud and hardened Pharaohs. The bishop had 
better be cautions about despising and provoking 
that invisible power. "Let not your highness 
think," he goes on to say, "that Luther is dead. 
He will still joyfully trust in the God who hath 
humbled the pope, and will play a game with the 
Cardinal x»f Mainz, which few would expect. . . . 
I give you notice, that, unless the idol be re- 
moved, I shall feel bound, out of regard to divine 
truth and the salvation of souls, to assail your 
grace as I did the pope, and to speak plainly to a 
high dignitary, and to place all the abominations 
practised by Tetzel at the doors of the Bishop of 
Mainz, and to point out to all the world the dif- 
ference between a bishop and a wolf. Your grace 
can hereby know what to do, and how to conduct. 
... I await your decision, and expect an answer 
within two weeks. If within that period none 
comes, then my book 'Against the Idol at Halle' 
will go to the public." 

Strange as it may seem, a mild and submissive 
reply was received, in which the archbishop pro- 
mised to stop the abuse. He did not care to be 
immortalized as Tetzel had been. He shrunk 
from a controversy which would be so little to 
his credit. The charm of indulgences had been 
broken ; the eyes of the people had been opened, 
and the public sentiment fixed for ever in opposi- 
tion to a practice so vile and contemptible. 



31* 



366 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



Section II. — Troubles at Wittenberg, and Luther's Return. 

Meanwhile sentiments and principles were 
springing up among the friends and followers of 
Luther which were destined to make him great 
trouble. He had broken the bands by which the 
human mind had been so long fettered, and now 
men began everywhere to exercise freedom of 
opinion and of speech. Luther himself had not 
fully considered how difficult it would be to stay 
the current after he had loosened the foundations 
and removed a portion of the dam which had 
hitherto restrained it. How is this freedom to 
be controlled? Shall men be free to differ from 
the reformer himself? Is there to be no subjec- 
tion to authority in matters of religion? Shall 
differences of opinion, when they exist, be ad- 
justed by learned disputations, with chosen judges 
to sit in arbitration? or shall the church be made 
again the ultimate authority? or shall the civil 
power be brought in as the protector of the true 
faith? It is not strange that so difficult a pro- 
blem should not have been solved by the reform- 
ers, and that, drifting along on the current of 
events, they should sometimes be carried in a 
wrong direction. 

There were two classes of subjects on which 
serious differences of opinion arose, the one relat- 
ing to what is true, the other to what is expe- 
dient. Luther often agreed with his opponents in 
respect to the former, and differed only in respect 
to the latter. The majority of the Augustinian 



M. 37.] 



AT WARTBURG. 



367 



monks of Wittenberg agreed, in the absence of 
Luther, to disband. The step was a little too 
bold even for Luther, though he himself had 
given the lesson. Many would be shocked at 
such a wholesale violation of the monastic vow. 
The monks would rush into wedlock, without 
either an income or a knowledge of business suf- 
ficient to support their households. 

The elector and all his ministers, and the uni- 
versity and the chapter, after innumerable consul- 
tations, found it difficult to settle this matter, and 
still more difficult to manage the monks and others 
who, in the exercise of their new freedom, had 
abolished the mass service about the same time. 
Finally, the subject of church ceremonies and 
church ornaments, altars and images, led to a con- 
troversy which ended in open tumult. On all 
these and kindred points, Caiistadt, who had 
joined the party of the monk Gabriel Didymus, 
took a different view from Luther. He insisted 
on bringing all things back to the pattern of the 
primitive church, without regard to men's preju- 
dices or to consequences. This controversy be- 
tween Luther and Caiistadt is a delicate subject 
for the historian to dispose of. Men of equal in- 
telligence and piety come to different conclusions 
in respect to it. So much, however, may safely 
be said, that Caiistadt, though a learned and un- 
doubtedly a conscientious man, had neither the 
ability nor the discretion of Luther. He was 
excitable, somewhat changeable and fanatical, and 
perhaps ambitious. That his views of reform 
carried him at times to excess is undeniable. 



368 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



But if, in respect to means and measures, lie 
was too violent, and sometimes erred even when 
his principles were otherwise right, Luther was 
sometimes wrong in his principles. If the former 
laid too great stress on the reformation of exter- 
nal abuses, and did not rely sufficiently on well 
settled principles to work out their own results in 
due time, the latter went to the other extreme 
of undervaluing outward conformity to primitive 
Christianity, and of regarding the ceremonies 
introduced into the church in later times as a 
matter of comparative indifference. In this last 
respect, he differed widely from the Swiss reform- 
ers. Carlstadt was successively connected with 
two very different parties, both of which were at 
variance with the Lutheran church, namely, the 
Anabaptists and the Zwinglians. We are now 
concerned with the former only. 

The name by which Luther and his associates 
designated these men was that of " Celestial Pro- 
phets," or " Zwickau Prophets," a clear indication 
that their leading characteristic was fanaticism, 
and that their peculiar views of baptism were re- 
garded as subordinate or incidental. This inference 
is supported by the fact that, for the first three 
or four years, they made no innovations in respect 
to this rite as practised by the church, or, at most, 
in but a few individual cases. The first clear in- 
stance on record of re-baptism by them was in 
Switzerland, in 1524, whereas the Zwickau Pro- 
phets commenced their movement near the middle 
of the year 1521. Muncer himself did not re- 



M. 38.] TROUBLES AT WITTENBERG. 369 

baptize, nor did his followers generally, during 
his lifetime. 

Nor was there any dispute at that time about 
the mode of baptism, for the Anabaptists not only 
made no complaints of the practice of the church 
in that respect, but themselves ordinarily prac- 
tised aspersion or pouring, and rarely immersion. 

When, therefore, the men of Zwickau appeared 
at Wittenberg, in December of 1521, and con- 
founded and alarmed Melancthon and Amsdorf, 
and, for a time, carried away with their persua- 
sions Carlstadt and others connected with the uni- 
versity, their main doctrine was, that the people 
of God should follow an inward light ; that they 
themselves possessed the spirit of prophecy, and 
spoke by immediate revelation; that the vain 
show and ceremonies of the church were all to be 
abrogated or changed, and the church restored to 
its apostolical simplicity. They professed to 
establish a spiritual church, regarding the Catho- 
lic church as carnal and corrupt, so that neither 
baptism, ordination, nor any thing else coming 
from it, could be recognised by a Christian. Va- 
rious extravagances were connected with these 
views, of which none was more important than 
their radicalism in respect to civil government. 

Melancthon, Amsdorf and others represented 
the perilous state of things at Wittenberg to the 
Elector Frederic, saying they were upon the very 
verge of a violent insurrection, and, as Luther's 
authority was appealed to by the insurgents, none 
but Luther could have power with them. Their 
proposal to recall Luther did not meet the elector's 



370 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



views. He said lie had purposely caused Lu- 
ther to be conveyed to an unknown place, and 
kept securely in secret, so that he could truly say 
to the emperor, if required to deliver him up, that 
he knew not where he was. Should Luther now 
make his appearance openly at Wittenberg, he 
might be seized by his enemies, and he himself, 
as elector, was subject to the imperial authority, 
and could do nothing in opposition to it for Lu- 
ther's protection. Luther, who was informed of 
all these things, resolved to make the bold experi- 
ment of going unprotected to the place of dan- 
ger, informing the elector of his purpose, but 
giving him no time to prevent the step. 

No wonder that Luther was willing to risk his 
life and his credit with Frederic, in order to allay 
the tempest which he saw rising. He feared that 
these disorders, springing up in the head-quarters 
of reform, would bring the whole movement, with 
which he was now identified, into discredit, and 
prove more fatal to the Reformation than all the 
opposition of the Papists. It must be conceded 
that, in his general view of the case, he was sub- 
stantially in the right. Whether a little more 
sympathy with the people in their longing 
for freedom, a little more relaxation on points 
either debatable or comparatively unimportant, 
would have secured union, (except with a few,) as 
well as victory, and saved the people from the 
terrible catastrophe into which Muncer plunged 
them, is a question which no one can decide with 
certainty. But of this there can be no doubt, 
that Luther's abilities were equal to the exigency, 



JE. 38.] 



TROUBLES AT WITTENBERG. 



371 



and that he never manifested more consummate 
skill in management and discussion, nor a clearer 
insight into human nature, than on this occasion. 

An incident occurred when he was at Jena, on 
his way to Wittenberg, which is too characteristic 
of his humour and of his social nature to be omitted. 
We have the account in the words of Kessler, 
of Saint Gall, one of the individuals concerned in 
the amusing scene. We will quote his language. 

" Though it may seem trifling and childish, I 
cannot omit mentioning how Martin met me and 
my companion, when he was riding from the 
place of his captivity toward Wittenberg. As we 
were journeying toward Wittenberg, for the sake 
of studying the Holy Scriptures — and the Lord 
knows what a furious tempest there was — we 
came to Jena in Thuringia, where we could not, 
with all our inquiry in the town, find or hear of 
any place to lodge for the night, but were every- 
where refused, for it was carnival, during which 
little heed is given to pilgrims or strangers. We, 
therefore, left the town again, to proceed farther 
on our way, thinking we might perhaps find a 
hamlet where we could pass the night. At the 
gate of the city we met a respectable man, who 
accosted us in a friendly manner, and asked us 
where we were going so late. . . . He then asked 
us whether we had inquired at the Black Bear 
hotel. . . . He pointed it out to us a little distance 
without the city. . . . The innkeeper met us at the 
door and received us, and led us into the room. 
Here we found a man at the table, sitting alone, 
with a small book lying before him, who greeted 



372 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



us kindly, and invited us to take a seat with him 
at the table ; for our shoes were so muddy that 
we were ashamed to enter the room, and therefore 
slunk away upon a bench behind the door. . . . 
We took him to be no other than a knight, as he 
had on, according to the custom of the country, a 
red cap, small clothes and a doublet, and a sword 
at his side, on which he leaned, with one hand on 
the pommel and the other on the hilt. He asked 
us whence we were, but immediately answered 
himself, 'You are Swiss; from what part of Swit- 
zerland are you?' We replied, 6 St. Gall.' He then 
said, ' If, as I suppose, you are on your way to 
Wittenberg, you will find good countrymen of 
yours there, namely, Jerome Schurf and his bro- 
ther Augustine.' Whereupon we said, 'We have 
letters to them/ We now asked him, in turn, if 
he could give us any information about Martin 
Luther — whether he is now at Wittenberg or else- 
where. He said, 'I have certain knowledge that 
he is not now at Wittenberg, but will soon be there. 
But Philip Melancthon is there, as teacher of 
Greek, and others teach Hebrew.' He recom- 
mended to us to study both languages, as neces- 
sary, above all things, to understand the Scrip- 
tures. We said, c Thank God, we shall then see 
and hear the man [Luther] on whose account we 
have undertaken this journey.' . . . He then asked 
us where we had formerly studied; and, as we 
replied at Basle, he inquired how things were 
going on there, and what Erasmus was doing. 
6 Erasmus is still there, but what he is about no 
one knoweth, for he keepeth himself very quiet 



M. 38.] RETURN TO WITTENBERG. 373 

and secluded.' We were much surprised at the 
knight, that he should know the Schurfs, Melanc- 
thon and Erasmus, and that he should speak of 
the necessity of studying Greek and Hebrew. 
At times, too, he made use of Latin words, so 
that we began to think he was something more 
than a common knight. 

"'Sir/ said he, 'what do men in Switzerland 
think of Luther?' We replied, 'Variously, as 
everywhere else. Some cannot sufficiently bless 
and praise God that he hath, through this man, 
made known his truth and exposed error ; others 
condemn him as an intolerable heretic' ' Es- 
pecially the clergy/ interrupted he ; 'I doubt not 
these are the priests.' By this conversation we 
were made to feel ourselves quite at home, and 
my companion [Reutiner] took the book that lay 
before him, and looked into it, and found it was a 
Hebrew psalter. He soon laid it down again, and 
the knight took it. This increased our curiosity 
to know who he was. When the day declined 
and it grew dark, our host, knowing our desire, 
and longing after Luther, came to the table and 
said, 'Friends, had you been here two days ago, 
you could have had your desire, for he sat here 
at this table/ pointing to the seat. We were 
provoked with ourselves that we were too late, 
and poured out our displeasure against the bad 
roads which had hindered us. After a little 
while, the host called me to the door, and said, 
'Since you manifest so earnest a desire to see 
Luther, you must know that it is he who is 
seated by you.' I took these words as spoken 

32 



374 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1521. 



in jest, and said, 6 You, to please me, give me a 
false joy at seeing Luther.' c It is indeed he/ 
replied my host, 'but make as if you did not 
know it.' I went back into the room and to the 
table, and desired to tell my companion what I 
had heard, and turned to him and said in a 
whisper, ' Our host hath told me that this is Lu- 
ther.' He, like myself, was incredulous. 6 Per- 
haps he said Hutten, and you misunderstood him.' 
As now the knight's dress comported better with 
the character of Hutten than with that of a monk, 
I was persuaded that he said it was Hutten. 
[Two merchants now came in, and they all supped 
together.] Our host came, meanwhile, to us, and 
said in a whisper, ' Don't be concerned about the 
cost, for Martin hath paid the bill.' We rejoiced, 
not so much for the gift or the supper, as for the 
honour of being entertained by such a man. After 
supper the merchants went to the stable to see to 
their horses, and Martin remained with us in the 
room. We thanked him for the honour shown us, 
and gave him to understand that we took him for 
Ulrich von Hutten. But he said, 6 1 am not he.' 
Just then came in our host, and Martin said to 
him, 'I have become a nobleman to-night, for 
these Swiss hold me to be Ulrich von Hutten.' 
The host replied, 6 You are not he, but Martin 
Luther.' He laughed, and said jocosely, 6 They 
hold me to be Hutten, and you say I am Luther ; 
I shall next be Marcolfus,' [a notorious character 
in the monkish legends.] Afterward he took up 
a large beer-glass, and said, 6 Swiss, now drink me 
a health ;' and then arose, threw around him his 



JE. 38.] 



AT WITTENBERG AGAIN. 



375 



mantle, and, giving us his hand, took leave of us, 
saying, 6 When you come to Wittenberg, greet Dr. 
Jerome Schurf for me.' 'Very gladly/ said we; 
6 but whom shall we call you, that he may under- 
stand us ? ' He replied, c Say only this, he who is 
to come, sendeth you greeting,' and he will under- 
stand it. . . . On Saturday, we went to the house 
of Schurf to present our letters ; and when we 
were conducted into the room, behold we found 
Martin there as at Jena, and with him Melanc- 
thon, Justus Jonas, Nicholas Amsdorf, and Dr. 
Augustine Schurf, rehearsing to him what had 
taken place at Wittenberg during his absence. 
He greeted us, and, smiling, said, 6 This is Philip 
Melancthon, of whom we spoke.' Melancthon 
turned to us and asked us many questions, to 
which we replied as well as we could. So we 
spent the day with them with great delight and 
gratification on our part." 

Section III. — Lutlier at Wittenberg again, and Ms First 
Encounter with the turbulent Populace. 

Luther arrived at Wittenberg on Friday, the 7th 
of March, and from Sunday the 9th harangued the 
people eight successive days with overpowering 
eloquence. All his skill was put in requisition 
to save from shipwreck the vessel laden with a 
freight, containing all that was precious to him. 
In his first discourse, he went back and planted 
himself upon the fundamental principles of the 
Christian religion, and, carrying all hearts with 
him on these points, he next proceeded cautiously, 



376 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1522. 



but firmly, to unfold these principles, and to show 
their application to the case in hand, which he 
approached with the skill of a, master. His main 
positions were so strong and clear that one was 
the less disposed to call in question the use he 
made of them. The following is a sketch of 
what he said. "First, I maintain that we are 
all children of wrath, and that all our works, 
thoughts and feelings are sinful and nothing be- 
fore God, so that we cannot appear before him 
with them, how excellent soever and fine they 
may be. Secondly, that God, of his mere mercy 
and goodness, hath sent his only-begotten Son 
into the world, that we might believe and trust 
in him, and, believing, might be free from sin 
and become the children of God. In these two 
articles I find no defect or fault in you. They 
are preached to you pure and uncorrupt. Thirdly, 
we must have love, and by love serve one another, 
as God hath done unto us by faith, without which 
love faith is nothing, as Paul saith to the Corin- 
thians. Here, on this point, dear friends, you are 
in fault ; for I discover no trace of love in you, 
but observe that you have been unthankful to 
God, and that he hath, within these few years, 
bestowed upon you his treasures of grace in vain. 
Therefore let us beware lest Wittenberg become 
a Capernaum. I perceive clearly that you know 
how to discourse upon the doctrines which are 
preached unto you, such as faith and also love. 
But this is no great thing, though you could say 
much that is good about these virtues. Even the 
ass can be taught to sing. Cannot you, then, 



m. 38.] 



AT WITTENBERG AGAIN. 



377 



learn so much as to repeat the words of our faith ? 
But, my dear friends, the kingdom of God standeth 
not in speech or words, but in power and in deeds. 
God will have not merely hearers and rehearsers, 
but followers and doers, who will keep his words, 
who will exercise themselves in faith, which work- 
eth by love. For faith without love is nothing 
worth; nay, it is not faith, but its semblance only, 
just as one's face seen in a glass is not the face 
itself, but its image. Fourthly, we must also 
exercise patience. For whosoever hath faith, and 
trusteth in God, and hath love to his neighbour, 
and exerciseth himself therein, he shall not be 
without persecution. For Satan neither sleepeth 
nor is at rest, but maketh trouble enough for men. 
But persecution worketh patience ; for if I am 
neither persecuted nor tempted, I can have little 
to say of patience. And patience worketh hope, 
which springeth up and flourisheth in God, and 
putteth one not to shame. Thus, by many temp- 
tations and persecutions, faith increase th and is 
strengthened from day to clay. 

" Such a heart, wherein faith so increaseth, and 
so many virtues dwell, cannot rest, nor contain 
itself, but must pour itself out again, and do good 
to its neighbour as it hath received good of the 
Lord. Here, my dear friends, each one is not to 
do as he hath a right to do, but must relax from 
his right, and consider what is useful and profit- 
able to his brother, as Paul did, who said to the 
Corinthians, i I have all power ; but all is not 
expedient and, again, ' Though I am free from 
all men, yet have I made myself the servant of 



378 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1522 



all, that I might win many.' In these words of 
Paul, we are instructed how we, who have re- 
ceived faith from God, should conduct ourselves 
toward all, namely, accommodate ourselves to the 
weakness of our neighbour. For we are not all 
equally strong in the faith. He who is strong 
to-day, may be weak to-morrow ; and he who is 
weak to-day, may be strong to-morrow. There- 
fore we must not consider our own faith or 
strength alone, but that of our neighbour, that 
we may condescend to him, and not offend him 
by our liberty. We must not forget how he hath 
borne with us, and had patience a long time with 
our weakness. We ought to do likewise unto our 
brethren, till they also shall become strong ; not 
to storm at them, but treat them kindly, and with 
all meekness teach them, and not go to heaven 
alone, but endeavour to bring our brother with 
us. In this respect, I perceive you have erred, 
and some of you gone very far. I should not 
have gone so far, had I been here. The thing 
is right enough in itself, but there hath been too 
great haste. There are on the other side brethren 
and sisters who must be brought along with us. 
All those, therefore, have erred, who have given 
their consent and aid to doing away with mass ; 
not but that the act itself was well enough, but 
that it was done violently, in disorder, and to the 
offence of others. They did not have recourse to 
the magistrates, nor make any inquiries of them 
beforehand. They had a good knowledge of the 
Scriptures, but had not the Spirit, else they 
would not have made a law out of that which is 



m. 38.J 



AT WITTENBERG AGAIN. 



379 



free. Therefore I say, and faithfully warn you, 
if we pray not earnestly to God and return to 
our duty, all the wretchedness which the Papists 
have suffered from us will be returned upon our 
own heads. For this cause, I could not remain 
away longer, but felt constrained to come and say 
this to you." 

This outline of his first discourse may suffice 
for a specimen of his manner. In his second, he 
carried out and illustrated the ideas with which 
he closed the first. In the six remaining dis- 
courses, he reasoned out, one by one, the various 
points on which he wished to correct the prevail- 
ing popular sentiment. Rarely has it happened 
that one man, unaided by pow r er, — rather cramped 
by it, — by the mere force of his individual cha- 
racter and personal influence, should be able to 
stay such a popular excitement, which had al- 
ready carried away all barriers, and showm itself 
superior to the control of the court and the uni- 
versity combined. 

It is important that, at this critical juncture, 
when Luther's character was put to so severe a 
test, (the turning point, as it w r ere, of the w 7 hole 
work of the Reformation,) we ascertain as accu- 
rately as possible the position from which he con- 
templated the extraordinary scene. Happily, we 
have ample means for such an investigation, in the 
various letters written to his friends at the very 
time of these occurrences. 

On the day of his arrival, Friday, the 7th of 
March, he gave the elector, according to request 
made to him through Schurf, a statement of the 



380 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1522. 



reasons which induced him, contrary to his instruc- 
tions, to leave Wartburg, and appear at Witten- 
berg. In this letter he says : " I may well sup- 
pose it will appear objectionable to you that, 
without your grace's consent or permission, I 
should return to Wittenberg again; for the ap- 
pearance is, that out of it great danger will arise 
both to your grace and to the whole country and 
people, and most of all to me, who, as one that is 
proscribed and condemned both by the pope and 
the emperor, am every hour exposed to death. 
But what shall I do ? Necessity presseth, and 
God urgeth and calleth ; it must and will be so ; 
and so be it in the name of Jesus Christ, who is 
Lord over life and death. . . . The first reason is, 
that I received from the church at Wittenberg a 
written request, beseeching and begging me to 
come. Now, as no one can deny that the work 
was begun by me, and as I am bound to hold my- 
self as the obedient servant of that church to 
which God hath called me, I could in no way 
refuse, without renouncing Christian love, fidelity 
and service. . . . 

" The second reason is, that during my absence 
from Wittenberg, Satan hath broken in upon my 
flock, and hath, as all the world exclaimeth — 
and with truth — clone mischief which I cannot 
by writing arrest, but must manage by personal 
presence, with living voice and ear. My con- 
science would allow no longer hesitation or delay. 
On this account, I was obliged to disregard your 
grace's pleasure or displeasure, and all the world's 
wrath or favour. For they are my flock, com- 



M. 38.] 



AT WITTENBERG AGAIN. 



381 



mitted to me of God; they are my children in 
Christ; and there was no longer doubt whether 
I should come or not. I am bound to suffer 
death for them, which, with God's grace, I will 
cheerfully and joyfully do, as Christ require th in 
the tenth chapter of John. . . . 

" The third reason is, that I greatly fear, and 
alas ! am but too certain, that a wide-spread in- 
surrection w T ill break out in Germany, wherewith 
God w T ill punish this nation. For we see that the 
gospel pleaseth the people much, and they turn it 
to a carnal account; they see that it is true, and 
yet will not make a right use of it. To this end 
do those contribute who ought to quell such in- 
surrection. They seek to quench the light, but 
do not consider that they thereby imbitter men's 
hearts, and drive them to rebellion, so that they 
act as if they would destroy themselves, or, at 
least, their children, [the next generation, by civil 
war,] which God no doubt sendeth as a judgment 
upon us. For the spiritual tyranny is weakened, 
for w 7 hose downfall alone I laboured, but now I 
perceive God will go further with it, and over- 
throw both the spiritual and the civil rule, as in 
Jerusalem. I have lately seen that not only the 
spiritual, but the temporal power must give way 
before the gospel, whether it be by consent or by 
constraint, as is clearly taught in all Bible history. 
Now, God requireth in Ezekiel, that we should 
set up ourselves in defence, as a wall, for the peo- 
ple. Therefore, I have thought it necessary to 
consult with my friends, to see if w T e could not 
ward off, or delay God's judgment." 



382 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1522. 



To Spalatin he wrote the same day : u Satan 
hath attempted to do much mischief here in my 
fold, in such a way that it will be difficult to meet 
the case without offence to both parties. See to 
it that no innovation be allowed to be made either 
by common consent or by violence. By the word 
alone must error be assaulted, dislodged, over- 
thrown and done away, which our friends here, 
impelled by Satan, have, in their first zeal, at- 
tempted to carry by storm. I condemn as an abo- 
mination the papal mass, which is made a sacrifice 
and a good work, whereby a man is restored to 
favour with God. But I will not, therefore, resort 
to force, or persuade one who is without faith, 
much less compel him, to do it away with vio- 
lence. Only through the word will I condemn 
the abuse of the mass. Whosoever will believe, 
let him believe, and follow unconstrained; and 
whosoever will not believe, let him disbelieve and 
go his way; for no one should be forced to faith, 
or to any thing pertaining to the faith, but should 
be drawn to it and won by the word. Then, who- 
soever believeth without constraint will freely fol- 
low. I also reject the images which men wor- 
ship ; but I do it through the word, not urging 
men to burn them up, but rather not to put their 
trust in them, as others have done, and still do. 
The images will fall of themselves, if the people 
are instructed through the word, and learn that 
they are nothing before God. So likewise do I 
condemn the papal laws about auricular confes- 
sion, going at stated times to the holy sacrament, 
praying to saints and fasting ; but I do it through 



JE. 38.] 



AT WITTENBERG AGAIN. 



383 



the word to free the conscience from these 
shackles. When that is done, then they can 
either continue to use them on account of the 
weak who are still entangled with them, or they 
can do those observances away, if others are 
already strong. Thus, charity may prevail in 
these outward works and laws. Now, I am most 
displeased with our people, (and the populace who 
are drawn w T ith them,) that they let the word and 
faith and charity go, and glory that they are 
Christians, simply because they (not without 
offence to the weak) can eat meat, eggs, milk, 
&c, lay hold of the eucharist with their own 
hands, and omit the fastings and prayers." 

Luther went further, however, than to censure 
violence instead of persuasion in matters of reli- 
gion. He condemned the removal of images from 
the churches, the omission of the mass ceremo- 
nies, of the prescribed fastings and prayers, and 
the touching of the bread and wine, on the part 
of the laity, with their own hands, because such 
things, though innocent in themselves, shocked 
the feelings of many pious persons. If, in these 
respects, we grant that Luther acted as he did, 
not wholly without reason, we must also concede 
that the new practice which he censured in the 
other party, was neither unnatural, nor altogether 
unreasonable. High authority could have been 
pleaded on the other side, as in fact it was 
pleaded. 



384 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1522. 



Section IV. — General Narrative of Events from 1522 to 
1525. 

He who is accustomed to recognise the pre- 
sence of a superintending Providence in human 
affairs, will not fail to perceive the hand of God 
in the peculiar direction given to public events in 
Germany about the time of Luther's return to 
Wittenberg. Luther himself was defenceless, 
and both the papal and imperial authority was 
arrayed against him and employed to put in exe- 
cution the severe edict of Worms. The cause of 
the Reformation seemed, moreover, to be weak- 
ened by the disorders prevailing at Wittenberg 
and in several other towns, and destroying the 
confidence of men in respect to the tendencies of 
Luther's great enterprise. 

George, Duke of Saxony, and the Elector of 
Brandenburg, were ready to execute that bloody 
edict, and seize Luther and his associates; but 
the great influence of the Elector Frederic, his 
caution and wisdom had hitherto preserved Lu- 
ther from a violent death. And now, when the 
elector's plans were all baffled by what seemed to 
him the imprudence and rashness of the reformer, 
and when he could find no plausible ground for 
refusing, if the pope and the emperor should de- 
mand that Luther be delivered into their hands, 
behold Leo X. was removed by death, in Decem- 
ber of 1521, and was succeeded by Hadrian VI., 
who for nearly two years continued to maintain 
a new policy, entirely against the views of his 
court; and Charles V. was, meanwhile, so occu- 



JE. 38.] NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. 385 

pied in his war with France as not to be able to 
visit Germany, but was obliged to intrust its go- 
vernment to his brother Ferdinand. Under these 
remarkable circumstances, Frederic was relieved 
from his embarrassment, and Luther could go on 
undisturbed in his work. 

Though the edict was still nominally in force, 
yet in most of the middle of Germany the senti- 
ments of the intelligent and virtuous were so on 
the side of truth and justice that the edict was 
disregarded. This period, therefore, was the very 
one in which the public mind was enlisted in the 
cause of the Reformation. The unjust and cruel, 
but unsuccessful attempts of the Catholic princes, 
instead of terrifying men into submission to 
their authority, had the contrary effect, and 
aroused the indignation which always follows an 
attempt to do violence to the moral sense of the 
people. 

From this time onward, Luther's labours, at 
home and abroad, were greater than ever. Wher- 
ever a town or even an individual manifested a 
love for the evangelical doctrines, there Luther 
was either personally present to aid by public 
preaching and private conversation, or sent let- 
ters of encouragement, consolation and counsel. 
Wherever the radical party spread their doctrines 
and made disturbance, there none but Luther 
could appear either with safety, or with any hope 
of success, to quell the difficulty. Wherever the 
Catholics made an attack or exercised cruelty 
against the converts to the doctrines of the Re- 
formation, there Luther, as the bishop of all such 

33 



386 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1522. 



flocks and individuals, was quick to show his 
sympathy and extend his powerful aid. 

In April, 1522, he went to Zwickau, and was 
obliged to pass through the dominions of Duke 
George, at no small hazard, to reduce to order the 
excited population of that town, where Muncer 
and his colleagues made their first attempts to 
revolutionize the church and the state. On the 
way thither, he preached at Borna, and at Alten- 
burg.* He lodged in Zwickau with the burgo- 
master, and preached in the town-hall, in the 
castle, and in one of the churches. It was said 
that twenty-five thousand people from the adjoin- 
ing towns came to see and hear him. On his 
return, he preached twice at Borna, and then pro- 
ceeded to Eilenburg, and thence to Wittenberg. 

For similar reasons, he made a journey to Er- 
furt in October of the same year. The same 
spirit of speedy, if not violent reform, in respect 
to doing away with images, mass and the invoca- 
tion of saints, which had manifested itself at 
Wittenberg, was early active in Erfurt. After 
several letters on the subject, Luther, in company 
with Melancthon, Agricola and two others, visited 
the place in person. The day before reaching it, 
he preached at Weimar. On approaching Erfurt, 
Luther descended from the carriage, and passed 
through the gate privately, in order to avoid 
the croAvd which came out to welcome him or 
to see him. In the evening, which was passed 



* Borna is fifteen miles, Altenburg twenty-five, and Zwickau 
forty-five south of Leipsic. Eilenburg is fifteen miles north-east 
of Leipsic. 



M. 38.] NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. 387 

at the parsonage of one of the churches, he was 
visited by multitudes of persons. He preached 
there three times the two following days, and 
then returned to Weimar, where he remained 
some time, preaching every day. 

Of his numerous writings published in 1522, 
no particular account can be expected here. Be- 
sides writing the interesting letter to the knight 
Yon Kronberg, son-in-law of Von Sickingen, he 
had a very violent controversy with Duke George 
and Henry VIII. of England, or rather with Sir 
Thomas More. Though these potentates, who 
undertook to dabble in theology and to instruct 
Luther therein, deserved no better treatment than 
they received from his hands, Luther himself suf- 
fered in the estimation of many wise and good 
men from the intemperate violence, and even 
ribaldry, in which he freely indulged. 

The history of the diet of Nuremberg, which 
was in session during the whole winter of 1523, 
while it is too complicated to find a place in a 
brief biography, is too important and too closely 
connected with Luther's fortunes to be omitted 
altogether. 

The Turks had broken in upon Hungary, and 
were approaching the frontiers of the German 
empire. Charles V., who had undertaken to 
check them, was obliged to hasten to Spain to 
put down the insurrections which had sprung up 
there during his residence in Germany. His bro- 
ther Ferdinand, whom he had appointed vicar of 
the empire, called the diet above mentioned, in 
the emperor's name, to engage the estates in a 



388 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1523. 



war of defence and reprisal. The emperor, in a 
letter from Valladolid, endeavoured to persuade 
the pope to contribute from the ecclesiastical 
funds to support the war, adding, as a special 
inducement, that the same military power might, 
before being disbanded, be employed to destroy 
the Lutheran sect by the sword. 

Hadrian paid little regard to the emperor's chief 
object; but resolved to make use of' the diet to 
further his own ends in eradicating the Lutheran 
heresy. After taking the preliminary measures, 
and inviting the co-operation of the princes — and 
even threatening the Elector Frederic, if he should 
refuse to unite — the pope, through his legate, 
urged the diet no longer to suffer the edict of 
Worms to remain without effect, but to crush the 
heresy of Luther by the arm of the civil power, 
if milder measures did not succeed. To give new 
weight to his arguments, which met with opposi- 
tion, he confessed the corruption not only of the 
priests and prelates, but of the cardinals and popes 
themselves ; and promised (with all sincerity) to 
institute a reformation which should, in a proper 
manner, accomplish all that Luther undertook to 
effect in an improper manner. This concession 
and promise, so far from promoting his object, 
served only to defeat it. The Roman courtiers 
and prelates desired no such reform. The party 
which sympathized with Luther turned the con- 
fessions to a good account. A committee was 
appointed to draft a statement in reply to a com- 
munication of the legate, and John of Schwart- 
zenburg, a man of learning and talent, and warmly 



M. 39.] 



NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. 



389 



in the interest of the evangelical party, was chair- 
man of the committee. With great moderation 
and judgment was that document prepared, which 
stated, that it was impossible to put in execution 
the edict of Worms, in respect to Luther, so long 
as the court of Rome, which Luther had justly 
exposed to contempt, remained in its corruption, 
and unreformed. It recommended referring the 
whole matter to a general council, the preachers 
meanwhile adhering to the doctrines of the ancient 
church, and Luther and his friends refraining from 
writing and publishing. With slight modifica- 
tions, advocated by the Archbishop of Mainz and 
others, the, draft prepared was adopted by the 
diet, to the great mortification and indignation of 
the legate. Plaunitz, the deputy of the Elector 
of Saxony, who was not present, was the chief 
diplomatist in the interest of Luther, and well 
did he and Schwartzenburg concert their measures 
for baffling the papal counsels. Felitzsch, the 
ambassador of Frederic, would not yield so much 
as his associates did, and protested, in the name 
of his prince, against the prohibition laid upon 
Luther in respect to publishing his opinions. Lu- 
ther himself, however, was very well satisfied 
with the main features of the order passed by the 
diet, pronouncing it " remarkably liberal and ac- 
ceptable." Inasmuch as the enemies of Luther 
interpreted this recess, as it is called, so as to 
make it appear condemnatory of the cause of 
the Reformation, and confirmatory of the decision 
passed at the diet of Worms, Luther addressed a 
public letter to the vicar and government of the 



390 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1523. 



empire, in which he gave a different interpreta- 
tion. Thus the plans and schemes of the pope 
and his ministers, to engage the Grerman diet in a 
crusade against the new heresy, failed utterly of 
their object. The Protestant writers, who com- 
plain of the doings of the diet, do not, perhaps, 
sufficiently consider how many chances there were 
of coming to a result incomparably worse, and 
how much skill and effort it required, in a few, to 
take such advantage of the circumstances to ward 
off the evil. 

The result above mentioned was merely nega- 
tive. Luther and his friends were in the same 
state of insecurity as before. The elector was 
often alarmed, and it required all the ability and 
boldness of Luther to inspire him with confidence. 
In such a state of things, it was to be expected 
that the followers of Luther, in Catholic terri- 
tories, should be bitterly and cruelly persecuted. 
To this class of sufferers Luther directed his par- 
ticular attention. 

Three ladies had been dismissed from the court 
of Henry, Duke of Saxony, for having read the 
writings of Luther. Henry himself, who then re- 
sided at Freiberg, was favourably disposed toward 
Luther; but he was forced to this measure by 
his brother George, the reigning duke. Luther, 
though a stranger to these ladies, addressed to 
them (June 18, 1523) a consolatory letter, urging 
them to Christian fortitude and patience. " Sub- 
mit patiently," he says, "and let Christ work. 
He will abundantly avenge you of your wrong, 
and raise you higher than you could wish, if you 



JE. 39.] 



NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. 



891 



will only leave the matter, and commit it all to 
him." 

In July of the same year, he writes to his friend 
Crotus : " Two brethren have already been burnt 
at Brussels, and a third has been degraded (as 
they call it) and sent into some unknown Assyria 
or Babylon. The papal priests rage with incredi- 
ble madness against Christ. Some of them write 
accursed and blasphemous things. This is their 
obedience to the imperial [Nuremberg] edict, re- 
ferring our dispute to a future council. Thus 
far I have kept quiet, [as the edict required;] 
but, if they go on thus, I too shall bid adieu to 
the edict — not to burn, imprison, or do any vio- 
lence — for this is not the part of Christians — but 
to defend, by word of mouth and by writing, the 
glory of the Scriptures, and to expose still further 
the abominations of the papacy." 

He addressed a letter, worthy of Tertullian or 
of Cyprian, to the Christians in Holland, Brabant 
and Flanders, congratulating them "that God is 
causing his marvellous light to shine again, and 
that the voice of the turtle-dove is heard, and the 
flowers appear on the earth." The correspond- 
ence of Luther, in the years 1522 and 1523, is 
very rich in such specimens of Christian sym- 
pathy; the instances in which he intercedes for 
the poor, the afflicted and the outcast, being al- 
most innumerable. At one time, he asks of the 
elector charity for an aged and feeble monk, who, 
from conscientious scruples, has abandoned his 
cell; at another, for nine nuns, who were aban- 
doned by their relations for having laid aside the 



392 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1529. 



veil. Now, he takes the part of a pious preacher, 
who has been driven from his post for having 
preached evangelical doctrines, or having taken 
a wife ; and now, he writes letters of encourage- 
ment to the handful of believers who venture to 
confess Christ, in various towns and cities. Be- 
sides, his opinions were asked on so many ques- 
tions, laid before him by princes and nobles, by 
magistrates and town-councils, by scholars and 
theologians, by ecclesiastics, monks and nuns, on 
all points connected with the change he intro- 
duced in respect to man's ecclesiastical and social 
relations, that he was often obliged to excuse 
himself for want of time, and refer them to his 
writings, to other religious teachers, and to the 
Bible. 

Hadrian VI., the reforming but narrow-minded 
pope, lived less than two years after his acces- 
sion to the apostolical chair. He was succeeded 
(Nov. 19, 1523) by Clement VII., a wily politi- 
cian of the family of the Medici, whose intriguing 
policy better pleased the corrupt Boman court. 
At the next German diet, held in the begin^ 
ning of 1524, Campegius, the papal legate, and 
Haunart, the orator sent from Spain by the em- 
peror to represent his views, acted in concert 
against Luther, as Charles at that time felt the 
need of the pope's assistance in his war with 
France. Though their councils prevailed in part 
in the diet, the resistance of the Elector Frederic 
and some others was so decided that the danger 
of Luther was but slightly increased. So far was 
he from being terrified by the new Niiremburg 



M. 39.] NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. 393 

edict, which enforced the edict of Worms, while 
it provided for the settlement of the religious 
differences at the next diet to be held at Spire, 
that he published the two edicts together, with 
satirical comments, under the title of " Two Irre- 
concilable and Contradictory Imperial Orders re- 
specting Luther." In the preface, he says, "It 
is scandalous that the emperor and the princes 
deal openly in falsehood, and, what is more scan- 
dalous still, issue contradictory commands, as you 
here see. I am to be seized and punished accord- 
ing to the decision made at the diet of Worms ; 
and yet, at a future diet, to be held at Spire, my 
teachings are to be examined. So I am at one 
and the same time condemned and referred to a 
future trial; and my countrymen are to treat 
me as an outlaw, and then wait to see me con- 
demned." 

Of the controversies in which Luther was en- 
gaged at the close of this period, or from 1523 to 
1525, we will mention only those which tended 
to check the progress of the Reformation, namely, 
his controversies with Erasmus on the freedom of 
the will; with Carlstadt on the real presence in 
the eucharist ; and with Muncer and the peasants 
on civil government. 

The controversy with Erasmus derived its im- 
mediate importance from his great personal influ- 
ence, and from the support he had indirectly 
given to the cause of the Reformation. Both 
parties had been eager to claim him, and it was 
long doubtful which side he would espouse. But, 
from our point of view, we are led to attach still 



394 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[152,3. 



greater importance to the remoter consequences, 
those which are connected with the subject of 
the controversy; for, at a subsequent period, 
both Melancthon and the Lutheran church aban- 
doned the predestinarian view maintained by Lu- 
ther, and became converts, in part, to the doctrine 
advocated by Erasmus. 

Luther had long been suspicious of Erasmus, 
and, in a letter to GEcolampadius, (June 20, 1523,) 
he gave utterance to his impressions of him in 
these words : " Although I here and there feel 
his sharp arrows, yet, as he pretendeth not to be 
my enemy, so I pretend not to understand his 
manoeuvres, though I see through him better than 
he supposeth. He hath accomplished that to 
which he was called. He hath introduced the 
languages, and recalled men from their impious 
studies. Perhaps, with Moses, he is to die in 
the land of Moab, for, to better studies, which 
pertain to piety, he doth not advance. I could 
most earnestly desire that he would abstain from 
treating of the Scriptures and from his para- 
phrases ; for he is not equal to this task, and 
only impedeth his readers in a knowledge of the 
Scriptures. It is enough for him to have pointed 
out what is evil ; to reveal what is good, and to 
lead to the land of promise, is, as I now see, more 
than he can do." 

A letter of his, written in May, 1522, had been 
injudiciously published, in which he had said : " I 
knew before that Mosellanus agreed with Erasmus 
on predestination. But I think Erasmus knoweth 
less of predestination than the sophistical scholas- 



JE. 39.] 



NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. 



395 



tics knew. Nor do I fear that I shall fall, if I do 
not change my sentiments. Erasmus is not for- 
midable in this matter, nor is he generally in what 
pertaineth to Christianity. ... I will not provoke 
him to combat, nor, if he provoke me once and 
again, will I immediately resent. Nevertheless it 
seemeth to me not good for him to try the powers 
of his eloquence on me. . . . If, however, he will 
have a hand in the game, he shall see that Christ 
is afraid neither of the gates of hell, nor of the 
powers of the air ; and I, though a stammerer, will 
boldly meet the eloquent Erasmus without regard 
to his authority, name, or favour. . . . Salute 
Mosellanus in my name. I am not estranged 
from him because he folio we th Erasmus rather 
than me. Tell him to be a lusty Erasmian. The 
time will come when he will think otherwise." 

Referring to these two letters, he says, (Oct. 1, 
1523:) "My private letter concerning Erasmus, 
and another written to (Ecolampadius, have been 
published, which he taketh very ill. Although I 
have not a single word to take back, if called to 
defend myself, I am nevertheless not well pleased 
that letters, written in confidence to intimate 
friends, should be made public by informers. But 
the writings of Erasmus will not harm me, if 
directed against me ; neither will they give me 
confidence, if they support me. I have one who 
will defend my cause, though all the world rage 
against what Erasmus calleth my pertinacity. . . . 
I am resolved not to defend my manner of life 
and character, but the cause only. Let whoso- 
ever will, mangle my character as heretofore. . . . 



396 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1524. 



I am sorrowful and afraid when I am praised, and 
joyful when reproached and maligned. If this 
seemeth strange to Erasmus, I do not wonder. 
Let him learn Christ, and bid adieu to human 
wisdom. The Lord enlighten him and make 
another man of him." 

Luther knew that the Papists, and particularly 
the pope himself, had urged Erasmus to come out 
against him. He was long kept in painful sus- 
pense, expecting either an open attack or a private 
expostulation, and yet receiving neither. He finally 
broke the silence in a letter to Erasmus, holding 
out the olive of peace, but in a way that did not 
flatter the vanity of the man who had long been 
regarded as an oracle. 

" I have long kept silence," he writes, (April 
1524,) "that you, as the greater and older, might 
break it. But, having waited so long in vain, 
Christian charity, I think, compelleth me to make 
the beginning. First, I will not complain that 
you have stood aloof from me, in order to be on 
better and safer terms with the Papists, my ene- 
mies. Nor do I take it ill that you have, in some 
passages in your published works, for the sake of 
securing their favour or mitigating their wrath, 
used some bitter and biting expressions relating 
to me ; for I perceive that the Lord hath not yet 
given you the fortitude and courage to join me in 
cheerfully and boldly meeting those monsters with 
which I have to contend. I am not one to exact of 
you what is above your powers and your measure. 
But I tolerate your weakness, and honour the 
measure of the gifts bestowed on you of God. 



M. 40.] 



NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. 



397 



The whole world must own that it is a great gift 
of God in you, and one for which we ought to be 
thankful, that through you letters have been made 
to flourish and prevail, to the manifest aid of the 
study of the Bible. It was never my desire that 
you should desert or neglect your gift, and mingle 
in my combats, wherein your genius and eloquence 
would, indeed, avail much. But, as you lack the 
courage, it is safer for you to cultivate your own 
gift. I have only feared this, that my adversaries 
would persuade you to assail my doctrines, which 
would compel me to resist you to the face. . . . 
So much did I wish to say, as evidence of my 
candid feelings toward you ; and I desire that a 
spirit may be given you of the Lord, worthy of 
your name. But if it should not yet be given 
you, I beg you, if you can clo nothing more, to be 
a mere spectator of my tragedy, and not join my 
adversaries with yotir troops, and especially to 
publish no books against me, as I will publish 
none against you." 

That so sensitive a man as Erasmus should feel 
keenly on the reception of this letter is what might 
be anticipated . Ke replied with evident emotion, 
repelling the charge of timidity and dissimulation, 
and claiming to have served the gospel far better 
than many infattrited writers who make themselves 
important under : 3 abused name. The influence 
of Henry ¥111., his patron, being added to that 
of the papal eo : rrt. prevailed; and in September, 
1524, Erasmus opened his batteries upon Luther, 
who replied with unsparing severity. Whatever 
be the merits of this controversy — and it was 



398 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1524. 



conducted with distinguished learning on the one 
side, and distinguished ability on the other — Eras- 
mus confesses that he was influenced not wholly 
by a love of truth, but also by the fear of his ene- 
mies, the monks, who were exciting against him, 
as a secret favourer of Luther's doctrines, the ill- 
will of the court of Rome and of several poten- 
tates, whose protection and patronage he could 
not consent to lose. Here, as everywhere, the 
otherwise virtuous and well-disposed Erasmus cal- 
culated nicely his own personal interest. Thus 
these two great and, for the most part, good men, 
became inveterate enemies of each other. Luther 
never loved those who taught differently from 
himself. Carlstadt, Erasmus and Zwingle, when 
they opposed any of his views, were no less he- 
retical than Muncer. This was a fault in Luther's 
character. 

A few words from Luther's letter to a friend 
(March 30, 1522) will be sufficient to remind us 
of his relations to Carlstadt at that time. He 
there remarks : " I have offended Carlstadt, be- 
cause I have put a stop to his measures, though I 
did not condemn his doctrines, except that I did 
not approve of his labouring so for mere ceremo- 
nies and external forms, while the true Christian 
teaching, that of faith and charity, is neglected. 
For, by his foolish manner of preaching, the 
people were led to think they were Christians 
from the sole consideration (which is nothing at 
all) that, in the communion, they partook both of 
the bread and the wine ; that they handled them ; 
that they did not go to confession ; and that they 



M. 40.] 



NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. 



399 



broke down the images. Behold Satan's malice, 
in resorting to this new expedient to destroy the 
gospel !" 

Caiistadt had explained his position thus : 
" That we are sometimes at variance, is because 
we do not stand by the word of God, and think 
we may, by our reason, devise something that will 
please him. On this wise are we disagreed on 
the article of confession. For my part, I have 
followed the Scriptures, and appeal to my candid 
hearers. I have also requested the magistrates 
to forbid, under a severe penalty, preaching any 
thing which the Scriptures do not contain and 
teach. Death itself shall not drive me away from 
the Scriptures. For I know that nothing pleas eth 
God but what doth conform to his holy word. . . . 
Therefore I shall build exclusively on the word 
of God, not regarding what others teach. I know 
that I shall offend only those who are not Chris- 
tians." These words have been pronounced, by 
historians, haughty and insolent. Had Luther 
uttered them, they would have been pronounced 
heroic. 

If Carlstadt did not act according to this stand- 
ard — if he was fanatical, envious, or unkind in his 
opposition to Luther — that is quite another mat- 
ter. Carlstadt was at first compelled by the 
elector to promise not to preach to the people in 
the way«he had done. After restraining himself 
about three months, till April, 1522, he resolved 
to publish his views in opposition to Luther. 
The latter writes, (April 21,) "I have this day 
suppliantly entreated Carlstadt in private not to 



4 on 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1524. 



publish any thing against me, for, in that case, I 
should be obliged to contend with him earnestly. 
He solemnly affirmed that he would write nothing 
against me, though the six sheets now in the 
hands of the rector and judges for examination 
speak , otherwise. Certainly I will not so disre- 
gard public scandal as to pass over what he hath 
written. They are endeavouring to persuade him 
to retract or to suppress what he hath written ; I 
shall not urge it." Melancthon writes to Spalatin 
a few days afterward, " It hath been decided that 
Carlstadt's book shall be suppressed." 

It would appear that the intimation made by 
Luther against Carlstadt's good faith was not at 
this time justified by the result, for the latter 
returned to the ordinary discharge of his duties, 
much to the satisfaction of the former. In Janu- 
ary, 1523, Luther speaks of Carlstadt's lectures in 
most flattering terms. 

For three centuries, Carlstadt's moral character 
has been treated somewhat as Luther's would have 
been, if only Catholic testimony had been heard. 
The party interested has been both witness and 
judge. What if we were to judge of Zwingle's 
Christian character by Luther's representations? 
The truth is, Carls tadt hardly showed a worse 
spirit, or employed more abusive terms toward 
Luther, than Luther did toward him. Carlstadt 
knew that in many things the truth was on his 
side ; and yet, in these, no less than in others, he 
was crushed by the civil power, which was on the 
side of Luther. Luther was so zealous to main- 
tain the doctrine of justification by faith, that he 



2E. 40.] 



NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. 



401 



was prepared even to call in question the authority 
of some portions of Scripture, which seemed to him 
not to be reconcileable with it. To the Epistle 
of James, especially, his expressions indicate the 
strongest repugnance. Indeed, so intemperate was 
his language in reference to this subject, that we 
cease to wonder why Carlstadt should complain 
of " the audacity, the unreasonable severity, the 
violence, the false reasoning, the immodesty and 
shameless decisions of his friends." 66 Still," says 
he, " I will challenge no one, but if I am chal- 
lenged for the defence of the canon of the Scrip- 
tures, though I cannot do it as it should be done, 
I will contend with all my might." 

He had so far restored the sacrament of the 
Lord's supper as to distribute the wine as well as 
the bread to the laity. Luther, "in order not to 
offend weak consciences," insisted on distributing 
the bread only, and prevailed. He rejected the 
practice of elevating and adoring the host. Lu- 
ther allowed it, and introduced it again. Carl- 
stadt maintained, that "we should not, in things 
pertaining to God, regard what the multitude say 
or think, but look simply to the word of God. 
Others," he adds, " say that, on account of the 
weak, Ave should not hasten to keep the commands 
of God; but wait till they become wise and 
strong." In regard to the ceremonies introduced 
into the church, he judged as the Swiss reformers 
did, that all were to be rejected which had not a 
warrant in the Bible. " It is sufficiently against 
the Scriptures if you can find no ground for it in 
them." Luther asserted, on the contrary, " What- 

34* 



402 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1524. 



ever is not against the Scriptures is for the Scrip- 
tures, and the j Scriptures for it. Though Christ 
hath not commanded adoring of the host, so neither 
hath he forbidden it." "Not so," said Carlstadi 
"we are bound to the Bible, and no one may 
decide after the thoughts of his own heart." 

Carlstadt differed essentially from Luther in re- 
gard to the use to be made of the Old Testament. 
With him, the law of Moses was still binding. 
Luther, on the contrary, had a strong aversion to 
What he calls a legal and Judaizing religion. Carl- 
stadt held to the divine authority of the Sabbath 
from the Old Testament ; Luther believed Chris- 
tians were free to observe any day as a Sabbath, 
provided they be uniform in observing it. But 
Carlstadt was also a mystic, following an inward 
light, Hence his sympathy with the Zwickau 
Prophets. He was a singular compound of Zwin- 
gliam Lutheran and Anabaptist ingredients. 

The most important difference between him and 
Luther, imd that which most imbittered the latter 
against him, related to the Lord's supper. He 
opposed not only transubstantiation, but consub- 
stantiation, the real presence, and the elevation 
and adoration of the host. Luther rejected the 
first, asserted the second and third, and allowed 
the other two. In regard to the real presence, 
he says : u In the sacrament is the real body 
of Christ and the real blood of Christ, so that 
even the unworthy and ungodly partake of it ; 
and 1 partake of it corporally,' too, and not spi- 
ritually as Carlstadt will have it." After Carl- 



JE 40.] 



NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. 



403 



stadt had been compelled to keep silence, from 
1522 to 1524, and to submit to the superior 
power and authority of Luther, he could contain 
himself no longer. He, therefore, left Witten- 
berg, and established a press at Jena, through 
which he could, in a series of publications, give 
vent to his convictions, so long pent up. He also 
preached in several places in that neighbourhood, 
but chiefly at Orlamunde, a little above Jena, on 
the Saale. A furious controversy ensued. Both 
parties exceeded the bounds of Christian propriety 
and moderation. 

Carlstadt was now in the vicinity of the Ana- 
baptist tumults, excited by Muncer. He sympa- 
thized with them in some things, but disapproved 
of their disorders. Luther made the most of this. 
The work which he wrote against him, he entitled 
"The Book against the Celestial Prophets." This 
was uncandid ; for the controversy related chiefly 
to the sacrament of the supper. In the south of 
Germany and in Switzerland, Carlstadt found 
more adherents than Luther. Banished as an 
Anabaptist, he was received as a Zwinglian. 

No doubt this circumstance did much toward 
producing that intolerant spirit which Luther ever 
afterward manifested toward Zwingle and his as- 
sociates. It is not for us to decide the doctrinal 
question. It is enough to say that those men 
were as much entitled to the respect and charity 
of Luther as he was to theirs. We pass over 
this whole controversy, and the numerous collo- 
quies and debates growing out of it, as inappro- 
priate to the design of this work. 



404 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1524. 



Against the peasants, who, on the one hand, 
were driven to desperation by the oppression of 
their rulers, and, on the other, were intoxicated 
with the new ideas of liberty that had just begun to 
"be proclaimed, Luther wrote and spoke in terms 
of unmitigated severity. He was a better theo- 
logian than politician. He held to the divine 
right of kings, and, consequently, to the doctrine 
of passive obedience on the part of their subjects. 
He was justly alarmed lest the fair name of the 
Reformation should be stained by deeds of vio- 
lence and blood. 

In Thuringia, particularly, and under Muncer's 
influence, the political movements were linked in 
with fanaticism which led to the wildest disor- 
ders ; though in the south-west of Germany the 
insurgents acted more wisely and intelligently. 
That Luther should, in these circumstances, em- 
ploy his pen, and even travel from city to city, to 
allay the excitement and put down the peasants, 
is not strange. But that he should proclaim doc- 
trines subversive of all principles of freedom, and 
be the means of riveting more firmly the already 
galling chains of despotism, and exciting the des- 
pots to a bloody revenge, is a matter of regret, if 
not of wonder. 

The recent revolutions of Germany are very 
similar to those attempted in the sixteenth cen- 
tury. The cause was as sacred then as it is now : 
we do not say that the means were justifiable. 
Certainly the theories of government were extra- 
vagant and grotesque. The failure of the under- 
taking of Von Sickingen and Von Hutten, the 



M. 38-42.] NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. 



405 



tragic scenes of Alstedt, Frankenhausen and 
Muhlhausen, and the counter-revolution in Sua- 
bia, and the character given to the Reformation 
as hostile to all political revolutions, retarded the 
cause of liberty for three centuries. 

Perhaps it is well that it was so. Perhaps 
there was not, in that age, a sufficient preparation 
for the enjoyment and preservation of freedom ; 
and so the Want of enlarged, rational and philo- 
sophic views of the nature and functions of civil 
government, which we observe in Luther, is the 
less to be regretted. To be, at the same time, a 
religious and a political reformer, is more than can 
reasonably be demanded of one individual. Of 
the strict integrity and high moral principles of 
Luther, in all his transactions, both with princes 
and with peasants, during these unhappy times, 
there can be no question. 



406 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



CHAPTER V. 

luther's character as it appears in some particular 
spheres of action not included in the general nar- 
RATIVE. 

Section I. — Luther's Marriage and Domestic Life. 

fully convinced 
had Luther been for 
a long time that a 
monastic life was an 
evil, that he pub- 
lished a tract, show- 
ing that nuns who 
had taken the veil, 
could with a good 
conscience before 
God lay it aside 
again. The monks 
and it was to be 
expected that many nuns, who had, by parental 
influence or authority, taken the rash vow in their 
early youth, would feel the tedium of their mo- 
notonous life and the fetters which robbed them 
of their liberty, and, consequently, eagerly read 
those writings which aimed at restoring them 
to their natural rights, and introducing them unto 
those social and domestic relations for which 
nature designed them. A little to the south of 




were beginning to disband, 



MARRIAGE. 



407 



Grimma and not very far from Leipsic was the 
Cistercian nunnery of Nimptschen, whose inmates 
were of noble birth. Luther was at Grimma, 
with Staupitz and Link, in 1516; and again he 
spent some time there in 1519. 

The next year the Reformation was introduced 
into Grimma. Thus the light that was beginning 
to shine must have cast some of its rays upon this 
convent, and Luther's name was well known to the 
nuns who were there pining away in their solitude. 
They, at length, entreated their parents and friends 
to take them from the cloister, and restore them 
to their homes. But such were their ideas of the 
sanctity of the monastic life, and of the inviola- 
bility of the vow, when once taken, that these 
entreaties of their children were of no avail. 
Nothing remained but to appeal to the sympathy 
and humanity of the liberator of the oppressed, 
to the straight-forward, honest-hearted reformer. 
He listened to their petition, and formed the plan 
of sending Koppe, a distinguished and prudent 
citizen of Torgau, to deliver them from their 
captivity. 

The project was one of great difficulty. It 
would shock the superstitious multitude, and 
arouse the wrath of monk and priest. Besides, 
the journey from Torgau to Nimptschen — about 
sixty miles in a southern direction — led through 
the territory of Duke George, the bitter enemy 
of Luther, though both these towns belonged to 
the elector. Koppe was assisted by his nephew 
and a man by the name of Tommitsch. The plan 
was put in execution on the evening of April 4, 



408 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



1523. Tradition says, that, at the time agreed 
upon, the nine virgins descended from the win- 
dow of Catharine von Bora's cell, which was on 
the south side of the nunnery, into the court, 
where Catharine herself left one of her slippers, 
and were lifted over the wall and put into stand- 
ing barrels in a wagon, and thus escaped detec- 
tion. It is said in the Chronicle of Torgau that 
when an individual, meeting Koppe, asked him 
what he had there, he replied, "Barrels of her- 
ring." April 8, Luther writes to his friend Link, 
"Yesterday I received from their state of cap- 
tivity, nine nuns belonging to the Mmptschen 
convent, among whom were the two Zeschaus 
and [Magdalene] Staupitz." This last was a 
niece of Luther's spiritual father, and the two 
Zeschaus were near relations of Luther's friend 
of the same name, prior, and afterward also 
reformer, at Grimma. 

After announcing the same fact in a letter to Spa- 
latin, he says, " But you will ask what I am intend- 
ing to do with them. First, I will inform their 
parents, and request them to take them home. If 
they will not do so, then I will see that they be 
otherwise provided for. I have already received 
promises in respect to part, and I will get the rest 
married, if I can." After mentioning their names, 
he adds, " These need our compassion, in showing 
which, we do service to Christ. Their escape is 
quite wonderful. I beg you to exercise your 
charity, and, in my name, beg some money of 
your rich courtiers to sustain them one or two 
weeks, until I can either deliver them to their 



MARRIAGE. 



409 



parents, or to others, who have given me pro- 
mises." Luther urged Spalatin to persuade the 
elector to contribute something for this object, 
and promised to keep it secret, that it might 
not give offence to George and to the Catholic 
clergy. 

This unheard-of adventure, this breaking up of 
conventual life, and the temporary settlement of 
the fugitive nuns in Wittenberg, produced an ex- 
traordinary excitement. No attempt of the priest- 
hood could succeed in concealing it. The example 
was the more dangerous, as the same discontent 
prevailed in other convents. Soon the abbess of 
Zeitz and four nuns followed the example ; and 
six from another, and eight from a third, and 
sixteen from a fourth, many of whom belonged 
to the duchy of Saxony, or the territory of Duke 
George. The consequence was, that Luther was 
bitterly assailed as being the author of all the 
mischief. He was spoken against and written 
against, till he found it necessary to reply, which 
he did to the cost of the opposing party. He 
portrayed the darker side of life in the nunnery, 
spicing his productions with striking narratives 
of inhumanity and cruelty. He published an ac- 
count of Florentina of Upper Weimar, who passed 
through many sufferings before she succeeded in 
making her escape from a monastery in Eisleben. 
She had been sent there by her parents at the 
age of six; was, without her consent, consecrated, 
or made to take the veil, at the age of eleven. 
Feeling discontented, she made her complaints to 
the abbess, who replied that she must remain a 



410 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



nun for better or for worse. She wrote to Lu- 
ther ; but the letter was intercepted, and she was 
kept in a cold prison, in an inclement season, for 
four weeks. She next wrote to a relative ; this 
letter, too, was seized, and she was beaten by the 
abbess and four others till they gave over from 
fatigue. Luther made an appeal to the Counts 
of Mansfeld, in whose dominions these cruelties 
were practised, to put a stop to such flagrant 
abuses. 

Koppe was exposed to popular indignation still 
more than Luther, for he had performed the dar- 
ing act of rescue, and was very anxious that his 
agency in the matter should be kept as secret as 
possible. Luther thought and felt otherwise, and 
made the whole transaction known; and then 
wrote to Koppe, bidding him lift up his head and 
not shrink from the honour of so noble a deed. 
" They, indeed, will say, that the fool Leonard 
Koppe hath suffered himself to be caught by a 
condemned heretical monk, and then drove to 
the place and carried off the nuns and aided 
them in breaking their vows. . . . But I have 
made all this known for the following reasons;" 
and then he goes on to justify the transaction. 

Luther was not at that time, nor in the follow- 
ing year, (1524,) when he abandoned the cloister 
himself, inclined to marry. In a letter to Spala- 
tin, dated November 30, he says : " For what 
Argula writes respecting my getting married, I 
give her my thanks. No wonder such things are 
tattled about me, as many others are in like man- 
ner. Thank her in my name, and tell her I am 



MARRIAGE. 



411 



in the Lord's hands as his creature, whose heart 
he can change, and whose life he can save or 
destroy at any hour or moment. But with such 
a mind as I have hitherto had, and still continue 
to have, I shall not take a wife ; not because I am 
by nature averse to matrimony — for I am neither 
wood nor stone, — but I am disinclined to it, be- 
cause I am every day expecting death as inflicted 
upon a heretic. I do not wish to obstruct God's 
work in me, nor rely upon my own heart for com- 
fort. It is my hope that I shall not be permitted 
to live long." 

But within five months, we find him writing 
the following playful letter to Spalatin : "As to 
what you write me touching my marriage, I would 
not have you wonder that I, who am so famous a 
lover, do not marry. Be surprised rather that, 
since I write so much about marriage, and mingle 
so much in female society, I am not turned into a 
woman, not to say married. For I have had three 
wives at once, whom I loved so desperately that I 
have lost two of them, who are already engaged 
to others. The third I just hold by the left arm, 
and she, too, will be snatched away from me soon. 
But you, a cold lover, dare not be the husband 
even of one. Look out that I, with all my reluc- 
tance to marry, do not get the start of you, who 
are already affianced, as God is wont to do what 
you least expect. Without joking, I say this to 
urge you on in the way you have taken." In 
another place he says : " Had I become a lover 
before, I should have chosen Eve von Schonfeld," 
who was one of the nine nuns above mentioned, 



412 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



and who, at his own suggestion, was married 
to a medical student, afterward royal physician. 
What he said jestingly to Spalatin turned out 
to be true, for Luther was actually married first. 

Catharine von Bora, having no home to which 
she could go, was, on her arrival at Wittenberg, 
received into the family of a distinguished citizen 
by the name of Reichenbach, where she showed 
herself worthy of the paternal interest that had 
been taken in her, both by him and by Luther. 
Luther used his influence to form a matrimonial 
connection between her and Baumgartner, a theo- 
logical student from Nuremberg, who became a 
distinguished man, and enjoyed, in a high de- 
gree, the confidence of Luther and Melancthon. 
A mutual attachment seems to have existed be- 
tween the two parties ; but when the young 
Niiremberger returned to his native city, the at- 
tachment appears to have faded from his memory. 
Luther, therefore, wrote to him, October 12, 1524 : 
" If you intend to have your Katy von Bora, you 
must be quick about it, or she will be another's, 
who is already at hand. Her love to you remain- 
eth unaltered. I should certainly rejoice to see 
you united to her in wedlock." The acquaint- 
ance, however, was not renewed. The other indi- 
vidual referred to was Glatz, pastor at Orlamtinde. 
For Luther, who had never lost sight of providing 
for the settlement in life of the nine nuns, had 
selected this individual for Catharine, in case he 
did not succeed with Baumgartner. But she had 
a mind of her own, and would listen to no such 
proposal, and, in respect to Glatz, her judgment 



MARRIAGE. 



413 



proved to be correct. She entreated Amsdorf to 
divert Luther's mind from his purpose, adding, 
however, by way of conciliation, that if Luther 
himself, or Amsdorf, were to become suitor, she 
would make no objection ! 

At first, Luther was not particularly pleased 
with Catharine, because he " supposed she was 
proud and haughty." Learning, upon a more 
perfect acquaintance, that what had so appeared 
was in reality a certain womanly dignity and in- 
dependence, he came to entertain other feelings 
toward her. "And, thank God," he says, "it 
hath turned out well : for I have a pious and 
faithful wife, to w T hom one may safely commit his 
heart." lie was married to her without much 
publicity, June 13, 1525, when he was at the 
age of forty-two, and she at the age of twenty- 
six. The ceremony was performed by Bugen- 
hagen, in the house of Heichenbach, in the pre- 
sence of Professor Apel, Justus Jonas, Cranach 
and his wife, without the knowledge of his other 
friends. The cause of concealing his marriage 
from the elector, Melancthon and others, till it 
was actually performed, was the alarm it would 
give them. At a time when the public mind was 
agitated by the Peasants' War, and when the Ca- 
tholic princes were greatly imbittered against Lu- 
ther and even the elector, the marriage of a monk 
to a nun would, on account of the two-fold viola- 
tion of the monastic vow, do utter violence to the 
feelings of the community, and Luther supposed 
they would endeavour to prevent so daring a 
step. How offensive such a marriage was to the 

35* 



414 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



superstitious sentiments of even good men at that 
age, may be seen from the remark of Erasmus, 
who, when he heard of the occurrence, said : 
"When a monk marrieth a nun, we may expect 
antichrist will be born." The next day, when it 
became generally known that the marriage union 
had been formed, the city government, according 
to the usage of that age, honoured Luther with 
a present of fourteen cans of wine, of different 
sorts ; and the newly-married pair had the right 
of free access, for the space of one year, to the 
wine cellar of the city. A principal ceremony, 
at that time, was the festival following the wed- 
ding, on the occasion of conducting the bride to 
her new home, where a large company were 
treated to a dinner. The apartment, known as 
Luther's dwelling, in the Augustinian cloister, 
was undoubtedly the scene of this solemnity. 
Seven of the invitations sent to different indi- 
viduals have been preserved, and give us a view 
of the peculiar and somewhat awkward position 
of Luther, as well as a picture of the times. The 
first is that written to Chancellor Ruhel, Luther's 
brother-in-law, and two other Mansfeld court-offi- 
cers, and reads as follows : " According to the 
wish of my dear father, I have taken me a 
wife; and on account of evil-speakers, and that 
no hindrance might be placed in the way, I have 
hastened the act. It is my wish that the festive 
occasion of bringing my bride home take place a 
week from next Tuesday, and that I may enjoy 
your presence and receive your blessing. Since 
these are times of commotion [the insurrection 



MARRIAGE. 



415 



of the peasants] and danger, I cannot urge your 
attendance ; but if you have a desire to come and 
can do so, and bring with you my dear father and 
mother, you can easily understand that it would 
give me great joy, and whatever [presents] you 
may receive from good friends for my poverty 
will be very welcome." Another invitation, sent 
to Dolzig, the elector's marshal, is written with 
characteristic humour. "No doubt," he says, 
"the strange rumour hath reached you, that I 
have become a husband. Though this is a very 
singular affair, which I myself can scarcely be- 
lieve, nevertheless, the witnesses are so nume- 
rous that I am bound in honour to believe it; 
and I have concluded to have a collation next 
Tuesday for my father and mother and other 
good friends, to seal the same and make it sure. 
I therefore beg you, if it is not too much trouble, 
to provide venison for me, and be present your- 
self to help affix the seal with becoming joy." 
At this time the city presented to Luther seve- 
ral casks of beer ; and the university gave a large 
silver tankard, plated with gold on the outside 
and inside, weighing five pounds and a quarter. 
It was purchased in the year 1800, from the 
heirs, by the University of Greifswald, for one 
hundred rix dollars. 

Catharine von Bora was born, January 29, 1499, 
probably at her father's estate, now called Mil- 
dens tein, not far from Bitterfeld, between Witten- 
berg and Halle. We know nothing of her parents ; 
but Luther often speaks of John von Bora, her 
brother, who was in the service of Albert of 



416 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



Prussia, and afterward in that of Henry, Duke 
of Saxony. There was once a nunnery in Catha- 
rine's native place, and she is said to have entered 
that at first. Her monastic life was probably 
without incident. She appears to have been pro- 
minent among the nine fugitive nuns ; and Lu- 
ther's early treatment of her, even before he was 
pleased with her manners, shows the considera- 
tion in which she was held. 

Luther himself often speaks of his marriage as 
a happy one. True, the sex did not then receive 
the same delicate regard which is shown it among 
us at the present time. Luther, too, was a man 
who told all his private thoughts and feelings ; 
and it would be strange indeed, if a man of such 
a temperament should never see nor mention a 
wife's little imperfections. He at one time re- 
marks, "Katy is kind, submissive in all things, 
and pleasing, more so (thank God) than I could 
hope, so that I would not exchange my poverty 
for the riches of Croesus." The epistle of Ga- 
latians was a favourite epistle with him. " It 
is my epistle," he says, "to which I am betrothed; 
it is my Catharine von Bora." Again, he says, 
in 1538, thirteen years after his marriage, " Even 
if I were a young man, I would sooner die than 
marry a second time, knowing what I do of the 
world, though a queen should be offered me after 
my Katy." " A more obedient wife," he observes 
again, " I could not find, unless I were to chisel 
one out of marble." And again, "I prize her 
above the kingdom of France, or the state of Ve- 
nice; she is a pious, good wife, given me of God." 



DOMESTIC LIFE. 



417 



Hers, too, was a happy life. Not only was she 
the wife of the great man of the age, but of one 
whose domestic feelings were as tender as his 
public character was masculine and strong. From 
the personal clangers of Luther, and from his fre- 
quent illness, she had much to suffer. To Spala- 
tin, who had invited him to his wedding, he said, 
" The tears of my Katy prevent me from coming; 
she thinks it would be very perilous." He had 
just excited the fury of some nobles by deliver- 
ing several nuns from their prison-houses. In 
February, 1526, she went with Luther to visit 
Caiistadt at Segrena, a little west of Kemberg, 
where he was then living as a shop-keeper and 
farmer. Here Carlstadt's wife was born. Luther, 
who never recovered entirely from the effects of 
his early austerities, and who was worn down with 
excessive labours, saw so much trouble spring out 
of his perpetual controversy on the real presence 
of Christ in the supper, that his cheerfulness was 
much abated and his temper somewhat soured. 
It was then that Catharine proved of inestimable 
value to him. 

In his temporary illness of 1526, and especially 
in 1527, when it was expected he would leave 
her a widow with her infant child, she showed 
remarkable fortitude as well as faith and patience. 
"You know," he said to her, " that I have nothing 
to leave you but the silver cups." "My dear doc- 
tor," she replied, "if it is God's will, then I choose 
that you be with him rather than with me . It is not 
so much I and my child that need you, but many 
pious Christians. Trouble not yourself about me." 



418 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



When Luther was depressed, his considerate 
wife often sent privately for Justus Jonas, whose 
cheerful conversation was known to be a good 
remedy in such cases. Luther somewhere says, 
" I expect more from my Katy and from Melanc- 
thon than I do from Christ my Lord, and yet I 
well know that neither they nor any one on earth 
hath suffered, or can suffer, what he hath suffered 
for me." Molsdorf, a former member of Luther's 
household, says, " I remember that Dr. Luther 
used to say, that he congratulated himself with 
all his soul, that Grod had given him a modest and 
prudent wife, who took such excellent care of his 
health." " How I longed after my family," says 
Luther, " when I lay at the point of death in 
Smalcald ! I thought I should never again see 
my wife and child. How painful would such a 
separation have been !" 

When Luther was at Coburg in 1530, he heard 
of the illness of his father, and yet his own life 
was in such peril that he could not safely make 
the journey to see him. At this, both he and 
Catharine were much distressed. Soon after- 
ward, the news of his father's death reached him. 
" I have heard," he says to Link, " of the death 
of my father, who was so dear and precious to 
me." Catharine, to comfort him, sent him a 
likeness of his favourite daughter Magdalene, 
then one year old. "You have done a good 
deed," says Yeit Dietrich, Luther's amanuensis, 
"in sending the likeness to the doctor ; for by it 
many of his gloomy thoughts are dissipated. He 



DOMESTIC LIFE. 



419 



hath placed it on the wall over-against the dining- 
table in the prince's hall." 

The foregoing are only a few of the evidences 
of conjugal affection and domestic happiness in 
the family of Luther, which are to be found in 
his writings and in those of his contemporaries. 
They have been thought necessary in this connec- 
tion, on account of the contrary representations, 
which were made by his enemies, and which have 
been so often repeated by Protestant writers. 
That no differences of opinion or of feeling be- 
tween Luther and his wife ever manifested them- 
selves in an unhappy manner, is more than need 
be said. This is rarely the lot of humanity, espe- 
cially where there are those mental qualities which 
give force and energy to character, as was the 
case with them. But aside from these common 
frailties, found in the great and the good no less 
than in others, there appears to have been nothing 
to interrupt the personal happiness of these indi- 
viduals in each other. 

There are two facts, often overlooked, which 
lead superficial observers to a false conclusion. 
The one is the plain and simple honesty which, in 
striking contrast with modern French manners, 
characterized the age of the Reformation ; and, 
connected with this, the decided tone in which the 
husband was then accustomed to speak as the 
master of the household. The obedience of the 
wife was a matter of direct and simple reality, 
and was spoken of as such without circumlocution 
or ambiguity. In this, Luther should be judged, 
not by a modern standard, but by that of his age. 



420 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



On any other principle, neither Paul nor Moses 
would be able to pass the ordeal of modern criti- 
cism. The other particular alluded to, is the 
playfulness and vein of drollery that run through 
nearly all Luther's correspondence with his inti- 
mate friends. Many of his pleasant sallies have 
been taken in earnest, and thus made to signify 
what was never intended. It may well be con- 
ceded that many of those expressions were half in 
joke and half in earnest. But the man who sets 
them all down as the serious statements of a formal 
witness, betrays an utter ignorance of the charac- 
ter of Luther. Thus, when, in his humorous let- 
ters, he addresses her as, "my Lord Katy," (meus 
Dominus Ketha, mea Dominus Ketha, meus Do- 
mina Ketha, &c.) he furnished pleasant amuse- 
ment to his university friends and the students, 
some of whom were generally members of his 
family. He once gave out a similar phrase in 
German to a student in his examination to trans- 
late into Latin, and the answer contained such a 
ridiculous blunder that it long continued a by- 
word. Luther closes one of his letters to an old 
friend by saying, " My lord and Moses [the law- 
giver] Katy most humbly greeteth you." He 
also, in a letter to his wife, addressed her as " My 
kind and dear lord and master Katy Lutheress, 
[Lutherinn,] doctress and priestess at Witten- 
berg." Stupid, indeed, must he be who construes 
all these freaks of the reformer's pen into so 
many serious charges against his wife ! 

If we wish to see his creed in respect to a 
wife's place in a household, we have it undoubt- 



DOMESTIC LIFE. 



421 



edly in these words, addressed once to his Katy, 
as he was fond of calling her: "You may per- 
suade to any thing you wish; you have perfect 
control ;" to which was added, by way of expla- 
nation, " in household affairs I give you the entire 
control, my authority being unabated." 

Luther was charitable and benevolent, perhaps 
to a fault, and would have been reduced to abso- 
lute suffering but for the frugality and economy 
of his wife. Some have turned this to her re- 
proach. But what would have been the condition 
of the family if she too had been above conside- 
rations of economy? Luther had reasons for 
being as far removed as possible from suspicions 
of selfishness, for the honour of the Reformation, 
which, in the private life of his companion, had 
not the same significance and public importance. 
Of his pecuniary affairs, Luther speaks thus, on 
different occasions : " I manage my household 
affairs strangely, and consume more than I receive. 
I expend five hundred gulden* in the kitchen, to 
say nothing of clothing, ornaments and alms-giv- 
ing; while my annual income is but two hundred 
gulden." "I am a very poor manager of pecu- 
niary matters. By giving to my poor relations 
and to other persons who make daily application 
for aid, I am myself made very poor." "As you 
know, I am oppressed by being obliged to entertain 
so much company. I have run into debt by my im- 
providence more than a hundred gulden this year. 
I have pawned three goblets in one place for 



* See note to page 115, 
36 



422 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



fifty gulden. But the Lord, who thus punisheth 
my imprudence, will deliver me. Besides, Lucas 
[Cranach] and Christian [Aurifaber] will no longer 
take my name for security, either because they 
see it is of no use, or think it will all be sponged 
away from me. So I have given to the former a 
fourth goblet for twelve gulden, which have gone 
to that fat Herman. . . . But why is it that I 
alone am so drained of my money, or rather in- 
volved in debt ? I think no one can accuse me of 
penuriousness or avarice, who am so free with 
what is not properly my own." " I have with 
my income and presents built and purchased so 
much, and entertained so many in my house, that 
I must account it as a wonderful and singular 
blessing that I have been able to meet it all." 

Many individuals often remained for several 
weeks, and even months, in his family. Had it 
not been for the many presents which he received, 
especially from the Elector John of Saxony, he 
could never have become the owner of so many 
little patches of land. His property, at the time 
of his death, amounted to about nine thousand 
gulden. 

His father left him about two hundred and fifty 
gulden. In 1526, the elector gave him the 
cloister building, in which he lived, with the ad- 
joining garden, free of taxes, together with twelve 
brewings of beer annually. This place was sold 
to the university by his children, in 1564, for 
three thousand seven hundred gulden, and made 
into a college building, to which a new one was 
added. It was here that those students resided 



DOMESTIC LIFE. 



423 



who received the stipends, one hundred and fifty 
in number. Since 1817, it has been occupied by 
the Theological Seminary. Luther's garden was 
made a botanical garden. In 1541, he purchased, 
for four hundred and thirty gulden, the small 
Bruno House and lot, adjoining the former place. 
In his will he gave this to his widow for her place 
of residence. On this spot the new university 
building above mentioned was erected. He had 
before purchased a nursery near the swine market, 
and also a small estate called Wachsdorf, near the 
village of Pratau, which last was estimated at one 
thousand five hundred guldens, and was sold to 
the younger Cranach, the painter, to whose family 
it continued to belong for about a century. Two 
years before his death, Luther purchased a garden 
adjoining the Speck, or celebrated grove of oaks, 
nearly a mile to the east of Wittenberg, and one 
of the most common places of resort for the stu- 
dents and others. But the most interesting pur- 
chase was that of the estate of Zollsdorf, two 
miles from Borna, made in 1540 by Luther for his 
wife, at the cost of six hundred and ten gulden. 
The elector agreed to furnish gratuitously any 
timber she should need for building. To Spalatin, 
Luther writes, November 10, 1540: "Katy now 
asks for that, of which she spoke with you when 
you were lately here. She wishes, that when you 
give the letter to the elector's questor, you will 
join her in requesting him to give her the oak 
timbers which she needs." To another person he 
writes: "Katy has just been in her new king- 
dom." Two years later, he wrote to Spalatin : 



424 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



" To-morrow, my Katy purposeth to go to Zolls- 
dorf, and will take with her a load of timber, and 
attend to some other matters." She frequently 
repaired to this place, and generally passed her 
time there when Luther was from home. Luther 
jocosely called her, at times, Catharine Luther 
von [of] Bora and Zollsdorf. In the last year of 
his life, he addressed a letter, when away from 
home, a To Catharine Luther, the Zollsdorf doc- 
tor," (alluding to his own title as Dr. Luther.) It 
is to be hoped that no one will attempt to make 
out that Luther reproached his wife for leaving 
his house and being a quack doctor in a retired 
village by herself. 

Some persons have represented Catharine as 
extravagant, in expending so much- on buildings 
at Zollsdorf. May it not with more propriety be 
regarded as a proof of laudable enterprise to aid 
in supporting the family, inasmuch as the timber 
was given her, and her rents were of course in- 
creased ? How different from this thrifty, calcu- 
lating woman, does Luther himself appear in the 
following incident ! A student, who had finished 
his course of study, and was about to leave Wit- 
tenberg penniless, came to Luther for a little aid. 
But Luther's pocket was empty, and his wife, 
who was present, was as destitute of money. 
Luther expressed his regret that he was unable 
to render him any assistance. But as he observed 
the sadness of the young man, his eye fell on a 
silver goblet, which he had received as a present 
from the elector. He looked at his wife inquir- 
ingly, and she returned a look which meant, "No." 



I 



DOMESTIC LIFE. 



425 



He, however, took the costly gift, and gave it to 
the student. The latter refused it, and Katy 
seized the opportunity of interposing another sig- 
nificant look. Luther said, "I have no need of 
silver cups ; take it to the goldsmith, and get 
what you can for it, and retain the money." 

Their ordinary style of living, when without 
company, was simple. The wife was economical, 
and the husband, who had been trained a monk, 
could almost dispense with food, and frequently 
ate nothing during the day but bread and salt, 
and was always content with his favourite dish 
of pea-soup and herring. 

Luther complained of being invited so often 
from home. He preferred to be more in his own 
family circle. He loved to sit in his own garden, 
his wife with her work at his side, and his chil- 
dren enjoying their sports. When he journeyed, 
his wife accompanied him, if she could. She was 
often his companion in his study, taking an inte- 
rest in his writings, and reminding him if he forgot 
to reply to the letters he received. When he had 
important works in hand, he chose to seclude him- 
self. On one occasion, when writing his commen- 
tary on the twenty-second Psalm, he shut himself 
up, with nothing but bread and salt, for three 
days and nights, till Catharine was alarmed for 
him, and caused a locksmith to open the door, and 
there they found Luther lost in deep meditation. 

He had a weekly family entertainment in sing- 
ing and playing on instruments, to which other 
practised singers were invited. Christmas was 
always a joyful evening in Luther's house. And 

36* 



426 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



rarely did a fair go by without furnishing some- 
thing for the gratification of his children. 

Luther was delighted with his first-born, John 
or Jonny (Hanschen) as he loved to call him. It 
was to this darling boy, when he was but four 
years old, that he addressed, from Coburg, in 
1530, the letter which has so often been referred 
to as illustrating his extraordinary power to adapt 
himself to persons of every variety of capacity 
and condition. It is as follows : U Grace and 
peace in Christ, my darling little son. I am glad 
to see that you study and pray diligently. Go 
on doing so, my Jonny, and when I come home 
I will bring with me some fine things for you. 
I know of a beautiful, pleasant garden, where 
many children go, and have little golden coats, 
and gather from the trees fine apples and pears, 
and cherries and plums ; they sing and play, and 
are happy ; they have beautiful little horses with 
golden bits and silver saddles. I asked the owner 
of the garden, whose children these were. He 
replied, ' They are children which love to pray 
and learn, and are good.' I then said, 'Dear 
sir, I, too, have a son, whose name is Jonny Lu- 
ther. May he not also come into the garden, 
that he too may eat these . beautiful apples and 
pears, and ride on these fine horses, and play 
with the boys ?' The man said, ' If he loves to 
pray and learn, and is good, he shall come into 
the garden, and Philly and Jussy [Philip and 
Justus] too ; and when they are all together, 
they shall have fifes and drums and lutes, and 
all kinds of music, and dance and shoot with their 



DOMESTIC LIFE. 



427 



crossbows.' And he showed me a fine grass plat 
in the garden for dancing, and there were hang- 
ing nothing but golden fifes and drums and fine 
silver crossbows. But it was early, and the chil- 
dren had not yet dined; and as I could not wait 
for their dancing, I said to the man, ' 0, my dear 
sir, I will hasten away, and write all about this 
to my clear little Jonny, that he may pray and 
learn diligently, and be good, and then come into 
this garden. He has an aunt Lene, [Magdalene,] 
and she must come too.' The man said, 6 That is 
right, go and write to him so.' Therefore, my 
dear little Jonny, learn and pray well, and tell 
Philip, [Melancthons son,] and Jussy, [Justus 
Jonas's son,] to learn and pray too, and then you 
may all come together into the garden. And now 
I commend you to God. Greet aunt Lene and 
give her a kiss for me. Your clear father, Martin 
Luther." 

This John Luther was first instructed by his 
father and by private tutors, and was then sent 
to the Latin school at Torgau, and afterward 
studied law at Wittenberg and Konigsberg, mar- 
ried the daughter of Professor Cruciger, and 
entered the Prussian service, and died at Konigs- 
berg at the age of fifty. Luther's second child, 
a daughter, lived less than a year. Upon her 
death, he wrote to a friend : " My little daughter 
Elizabeth is taken from me, and hath left me with 
a bleeding and almost w T omanly heart, so sad am 
I on her account. I never thought the heart of 
a father was so tender toward his children. Pray 
the Lord for me." 



428 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



His favourite child was Magdalene. She was 
born in 1529, and died, very pious, at the age of 
thirteen. The parting scene was very touching. 
Luther, full of agony, fell on his knees at her 
bedside, and prayed earnestly for her. "I love 
her dearly," he exclaimed, " but as it is thy will, 
gracious God, to take her hence, I will gladly give 
her up to be with thee." He then rose and bent 
over her, and said, " Magdalene, my dear daugh- 
ter, you would be glad to remain here with your 
father ; are you willing to depart and go to that 
other Father ?" " Yes, dear father," she replied, 
"just as God will." He turned away to conceal 
his tears, and, looking upward, said, " If the flesh 
is so strong, how will it be with the spirit ! Well, 
whether we live, or die, we are the Lord's." She 
fell asleep in his arms. As she was placed in 
her coffin, he said, "You, dear Lene, how well 
is it with you !" and again, " Ah, dear Lene, you 
will rise again, and shine like a star, yea, as the 
sun." To his sympathizing friends, he said : 
"You should not lament; I have dismissed a 
saint, yea, a living saint for heaven. Oh, that we 
could so die ! Such a death I would willingly 
accept this very hour." 

His fourth child was Martin. Luther was ac- 
customed to moralize over the sports of his chil- 
dren. One day, as Martin was playing with the 
dog, the father exclaimed, " This boy preacheth 
God's word by his deeds and acts ; for God saith, 
Have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and over 
the beasts of the field. See how the dog putteth 
up with every thing from him." At another time, 



AS A PREACHER. 



429 



joining his amusements, he said : " Such was our 
state in Paradise, simple and upright, without 

guile or hypocrisy Therefore, such natural 

sports and jests are the best for children." "How 
must Abraham's heart have beaten when he was 
about to offer up his son! He would not men- 
tion it to Sarah. I might contend against God, 
if he should make a similar demand upon me." 
Catharine, with a mother's feelings, said, "I can- 
not believe that God can desire parents to destroy 
their children." "And yet," replied Luther, "he 
could give up his own Son to die on the cross." 
Martin studied theology, and was married, but 
led a private life in Wittenberg in consequence 
of continued ill health, and died childless at the 
age of "thirty-three. Paul Luther, the fifth child, 
studied medicine, and after being a short time 
professor in Jena, was court-physician. He mar- 
ried a lady of rank, and left four children. He 
was the ablest and most distinguished of Luther's 
sons. So robust was he as a boy, that Luther 
said of him, "He must fight against the Turks." 
Through him most of the branches of the family 
now living have descended. Margaret, the young- 
est of the family, was married to George von Kun- 
heim, and became the mother of nine children. 

Section II. — Luther as a Preacher. 

We should overlook one of the most essential 
traits in the character of Luther as a reformer, if 
we were to omit the consideration of his pulpit 
oratory. In his university lectures, which con- 
tain the earliest germ of his reformatory mea- 



430 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



sures, he laid the foundation of his work, by leav- 
ing upon a small but influential circle of young 
men the impress of his own mind. By his uni- 
versity disputations, and by frequent conversa- 
tions, he won over his opponents, with a few 
exceptions, in the theological faculty. By the 
numerous learned treatises which he had occasion 
to publish in defence of his Ninety-five Theses, 
he made known the doctrines of the Reformation 
to the literary world, both at home and abroad. 
But his pulpit eloquence was a powerful auxiliary 
to all his other efforts in this cause ; and, more- 
over, it carried the Reformation beyond the walls 
of the university and the barriers of the Latin 
tongue, (of which the people knew nothing,) to the 
popular assembly, to the men of all trades and 
professions. When we consider that he preached 
almost every day, and several times in a day in 
the towns and cities through which he passed in 
his journeys, and that his unsurpassed eloquence 
always called out throngs to hear him, we shall 
not be surprised that, in his own times, so much 
public importance was attached to his preaching. 

To most men it was a novel spectacle to behold 
the crowded assembly, eagerly listening to warm 
and earnest preaching in the native language. 
Not that the church had been wholly destitute of 
able evangelical preachers ; for though there was 
then no Chrysostom to charm and enlighten me- 
tropolitan audiences ; no Basil or Gregory elo- 
quently to maintain the faith; no Augustine to be 
the Edwards of his age ; no Bernard to sway the 
popular masses, and to castigate and subdue 



AS A PREACHER. 



431 



princes and even popes ; there had been such 
men as Tauler and Suso among the Mystics, and 
a few of similar character among the Brethren of 
the Life in Common, who were truly spiritual 
preachers, and who discoursed to the people in 
the native dialect. But these were rare instances 
of popular and evangelical preaching, and the 
influence thus exerted was mostly of a local cha- 
racter. The greatest preacher at the close of the 
fifteenth century was, undoubtedly, Geiler of Kai- 
sersberg, who produced extraordinary effects at 
Strassburg and along the Rhine, by the earnest 
and captivating, though rude eloquence of his ser- 
mons, delivered to great concourses of the people. 
After his death, in 1510, Luther was, for a period 
of about thirty years, not only the most cele- 
brated, but actually the greatest pulpit orator 
then living. 

The Catholic religion is a religion of show and 
ceremonies. It aims not so much to unfold the 
intellectual and rational part of our nature, by 
means of doctrinal truth, as to excite our wonder 
at its mysteries; our veneration for the church, 
the priesthood and the sacraments ; our imagina- 
tion by its legends of a saintly mythology, and 
our sensibilities by its gorgeous ritual. Preach- 
ing is but an incidental appendage to that system ; 
the mass and its attendant ceremonies are the 
central point of attraction. Luther revived the 
primitive spirit of Christianity, which demanded 
that all ceremonies should be subordinated to 
"the preaching of the word." This was the 
watch-word of the Protestants — the preaching of 



432 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



the pure word of God to the people. The altar 
of the priest gave way to the pulpit of the 
preacher. Every thing conspired to make Luther 
an illustrious example of what he taught on this 
subject. He was of that physical organization 
which fitted him to command attention. His 
manly form, his piercing, fiery eye, his penetrat- 
ing voice, and natural manner and action, were all 
favourable to eloquence. 

Still deeper were the foundations for distin- 
guished pulpit oratory laid in his mental constitu- 
tion. His intellect was powerful and acute, some- 
times pouring a flood of light around a subject, 
and sometimes astonishing and delighting his 
audience loj the ease and celerity with which he 
would penetrate through the crust of scholastic 
learning to the very core of a disputed doctrine, 
and expose it from an interior point of view. His 
logical talents, which were of a high order, and 
which were admirably cultivated by study and 
discipline, were wonderfully aided by his strong 
vein of plain and practical sense, bringing him 
into immediate sympathy with every sound mind, 
w T hether cultivated or not. 

There was also a large poetical ingredient in his 
composition. He had an eye for every thing that 
was beautiful and attractive in nature. There was 
not a tone in all nature's harmony which did not 
find an echo in his heart. Though his poetical 
compositions are not of the first order, his ser- 
mons and other prose writings glow and sparkle 
with poetic fire. To speak more truly, it is ge- 
nius, with its nameless attributes, that distin- 



AS A PREACHER. 



433 



guishes Luther from so many other good preach- 
ers. Besides, he was deeply sincere and truly in 
earnest in all his preaching. He was not a mere 
professional man, aiming to elevate and adorn his 
profession. Preaching was with him, what the 
military art was with Napoleon, not an end, but 
a means, valued only by the effect produced. 

Luther had also experienced the power of the 
truth which he preached, and had, in early life, 
suffered immeasurably for want of it. Saved, as 
he was, by its efficacy, he proclaimed it as the 
only means of salvation to others. The genuine 
warmth of his own feelings, and the singular 
capaciousness of his soul for every natural and 
every pious emotion, gave him almost absolute 
dominion over the emotions of others. The feel- 
ings of his heart, and the fact that he always 
spoke from it, and stopped when his discourse had 
reached the height of its interest, must be consi- 
dered as one of the causes of his uniform success. 

But, more than all, it was the gospel, of which 
his sermons were so full, that gave a divine power 
to his preaching. He had studied the Bible and 
digested its varied truths, as no other man of that 
age had done. He had translated the whole Bible, 
and revised the translation frequently; he had de- 
livered exegetical or expository lectures in the 
university ; he had written commentaries ; and 
when he came to preach, he opened a Bible every 
verse of which he had carefully studied. In his 
own peculiar language, "he had shaken every 
tree in this forest, and never without gathering 
some fruit." If we add to all this, quickness 

37 



434 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



of memory, self-possession, vivacity, wit, a rare 
knowledge of human nature, and an unequalled 
power over the language of the people, charming 
alike to the ruler, the scholar and the peasant, we 
can account for it that all the men of the age, 
friends and foes, pronounced him the prince of 
pulpit orators. 

It was the preaching of Luther that endeared 
him to Frederic the Wise, even when he saw his 
own superstitions unsparingly exposed. It was 
his preaching that made him as absolute ruler 
over the people at Wittenberg, as Chrysostom 
was at Antioch and Constantinople, or Calvin at 
Geneva. It was his preaching that so often 
stilled the tumult in the many towns and cities 
he visited during the first five years after his 
return from Wartburg. Luther was not, pro- 
perly speaking, a pastor. He preached statedly 
for Bugenhagen, the pastor of the city parish in 
Wittenberg, in 1528 and 1529, while the latter 
was acting as a sort of missionary in Brunswick 
and Hamburg; also from 1530 to 1532, three 
times a week, (Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sun- 
days,) while Bugenhagen was acting the part of 
reformer in Lubeck ; and again from 1537 to 
1540, while the same pastor was employed in 
organizing the church in Denmark. The sermons 
preached at this time were not committed to 
paper by himself, but were written down by 
note-takers, after the manner of reporters of the 
present day. A part of them are now, for the 
first time, after a period of three centuries, in 
a course of publication. What are called his 



PROMOTER OF EDUCATION. 



435 



Domestic Postils were preached at home to his 
own household, when he was so ill as to be un- 
able to go to church. His Church Postils were 
written for the benefit of the churches and of the 
clergy while he was confined at Wartburg, and 
when there were few evangelical preachers to be 
found, and those few were so ignorant of the 
Bible as to be unqualified for their work. All 
the rest of Luther's preaching (and the amount 
was very great) was either occasional, or was 
limited to the cloister. 

Section III. — Luther as a Promote}' of Education. 

In Germany the church and the schools have 
always been connected, and the idea of their 
separation was not even conceived of till the 
late revolution. But schools are an essential 
part of Protestantism. It admits of no church 
to think and decide on all matters of religion 
for its members, no priesthood to interpose as 
interpreter of the divine will for the laity, no 
pope nor council to settle the controversy. The 
reformers, in giving the Bible to the people, and 
in relying on its grammatical and true explana- 
tion as the only authority in religion, made the 
study of the Bible, and whatever other studies 
are preparatory to it, indispensable. Not only 
the education of the clergy, but a high degree of 
intelligence among the people, is involved in the 
very theory of Protestantism. No man ever felt 
this more deeply than Luther. 

The education of the young, next to the preach- 
ing of the gospel, lay nearest to his heart. In a 



436 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



letter to the elector in the year 1526, he says : 
" Since we are all required, and especially the 
magistrates, above all other things, to educate 
the youth who are born and are growing up 
among us, and to train them up in the fear of 
God and in the ways of virtue, it is needful 
that we have schools and preachers and pastors. 
If the parents will not reform, they must go 
their way to ruin ; but if the young are neglected 
and left without education, it is the fault of the 
state, and the effect will be that the country will 
swarm with vile and lawless people, so that our 
safety, no less than the command of God, re- 
quireth us to foresee and ward off the evil." 
He maintains in that letter, that the govern- 
ment, "as the natural guardian of all the young," 
has the right to compel the people to support 
schools. " What is necessary to the well-being 
of a state, that should be supplied by those who 
enjoy the privileges of such state. Now nothing 
is more necessary than the training of those who 
are to come after us and bear rule. If the people 
are unable to pay the expense, and are already 
burdened with taxes, then the monastic funds, 
which were originally given for such purposes, 
are to be employed in that way to relieve the 
people." The cloisters were abandoned in many 
cases, and the difficult question, What was to be 
done with their funds? Luther settled in this ju- 
dicious manner. How nearly did he approach to 
the policy, now so extensively adopted in this 
country, of supporting schools partly by taxation 
and partly by funds appropriated for that purpose ! 



PROMOTER OF EDUCATION. 



437 



As early as 1520, three years after the begin- 
ing of the Reformation, he laid special stress on 
the necessity of reforming and improving the 
schools, in his eloquent address to the Christian 
nobility of the German nation. In 1524, he 
wrote a remarkable production entitled "An Ad- 
dress to the Common Councils of all the Cities 
of Germany in behalf of Christian Schools," from 
which a few passages may here be extracted. 
After some introductory remarks, he comes di- 
rectly to his point, and says to his countrymen 
collectively : 

"I entreat you, in God's behalf and that of 
the poor youth, not to think so lightly of this 
matter as many do. It is a grave and serious 
thing, affecting the interest of the kingdom of 
Christ and of all the world, that we apply our- 
selves to the work of aiding and instructing the 
young. ... If so much be expended every 
year in weapons of war, roads, dams, and count- 
less other things of the sort, for the safety and 
prosperhy of a city, why should we not expend 
as much for the benefit of the poor, ignorant 
youth, to provide them with skilful teachers? 
God hath verily visited us Germans in mercy and 
given us a truly golden year. For we now have 
accomplished and learned young men, adorned 
with a knowledge of literature and art, who 
could be of great service, if employed to teach 
the young. . . . Surely it is not meet to neg- 
lect this divine favour, and let God knock in 
vain at our door. He now standeth at the door, 
and happy shall we be if we open unto him. 

37* 



438 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



He now greeteth us, and happy is he who re- 
turneth the salutation. Let us recall to mind 
our former wretchedness and the darkness in 
which we were enveloped. ... If we let this 
season pass, manifesting neither gratitude nor 
interest, there is reason to fear that still greater 
darkness and misery will come upon us. Be- 
loved countrymen, buy while the fair is held at 
your door; gather the harvest while the sun 
shineth, and the weather is fair. Avail your- 
selves of the grace and word of God while they 
are at hand. Know that they are a passing 
shower, which doth not return where it hath 
once been. . . . Therefore seize at it, and lay 
hold of it whosoever can. Idle hands will reap 
a slender harvest. . . . 

"Why else do we older persons live, but to 
take care of the young, to teach and train them? 
It is not possible that giddy childhood shall pro- 
vide for its own instruction. Therefore God hath 
committed them to us who are old and have expe- 
rience, and he will call us to a strict account. 

"It is, however, a sin and shame that it has 
come to this, that we must stir up one another to 
educate our children and the young. Nature im- 
pelleth us to do it, as the example of the heathen 
abundantly showeth. Even the irrational brute 
traineth its young to what is needful. . . . 

" What though we had and did all else, and 
were ourselves saints, if, in the mean time, we 
should neglect that for which we chiefly live, — the 
care of the young ? Of all outward sins, I think 
none greater before God, or more punishable than 



PROMOTER OF EDUCATION. 



439 



even this which we commit in respect to children, 
in that we neglect their education. Alas ! that 
children are born and left to grow up as they will, 
with no one to feel anxiety for them, or train 
them up ! But, you say, all this concerneth 
parents. What have magistrates and rulers to do 
about it ? True, but what if parents neglect it ? 
Who shall attend to it then ? Must they go un- 
cared for, and untaught? . . . The causes for the 
neglect of children by their parents are numerous. 

"1. There are those who are so wicked and 
brutish that they would not educate their children 
if they could. They leave them as the ostrich 
doth her young. And yet they grow up among 
us and live in the same place with us. How can 
reason and Christian charity allow them to grow 
up uneducated, to become a poison and pestilence, 
corrupting a whole town ? . . . 

"2. The greater part of parents are, alas ! un- 
qualified, and know not how their children ought 
to be educated. They themselves have learned 
nothing but how to gratify their appetites. There- 
fore there must be those who make it a business 
to instruct and train children well. 

"d. Even if the parents were qualified, and 
were also inclined to teach, they have so much 
else to do in their business and household affairs 
that they cannot find the time to educate their 
children. Thus there is a necessity that public 
teachers be provided. Otherwise each one would 
have to teach his own children, which would be 
for the common people too great a burden. Many 
a fine boy would be neglected on account of po- 



440 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



vert j ; and many an orphan would suffer from the 
negligence of guardians. And those who have no 
children would not trouble themselves at all about 
the whole matter. Therefore it becometh rulers 
and magistrates to use the greatest care and dili- 
gence in respect to the education of the young." 

In what estimation he held the teacher's office 
we learn from his own lips. " The diligent and 
pious teacher," he observes, "who properly in- 
structeth and traineth the young, can never be 
fully rewarded with money. If I were to leave 
my office as preacher, I would next choose that of 
school-master, or teacher of boys ; for I know that, 
next to preaching, this is the greatest, best and 
most useful vocation ; and I am not quite sure 
which of the two is the better ; for it is hard to 
reform old sinners, with whom the preacher has 
to do, while the young tree can be made to bend 
without breaking." 

In pleading so earnestly for public " Christian 
schools," Luther by no means overlooked the 
importance of domestic education, but rather in- 
sisted on it no less strenuously. He taught that 
the beginning in education must be made at home, 
and that domestic influences must constantly be 
employed in support of the discipline of the 
schools. Indeed, with Luther, education con- 
sisted not merely in the acquisition of know- 
ledge, but in the formation of character. The 
former stood in the relation of means to the lat- 
ter. His views of some of these points may 
easily be gathered from the following truthful ob- 
servations. " Where filial obedience is wanting," 



PROMOTER OF EDUCATION. 



441 



he somewhere remarks, "there no good morals, 
no good government can be found; for, if in fami- 
lies obedience be not maintained, it is in vain to 
look for good government in a city, or province, 
or kingdom, or empire. For the family is the 
primary government, whence all other govern- 
ment and dominion on earth take their origin. 
If the root be not sound, then neither the tree 
nor the fruit will be good." " See to it," he says 
in another place, " that your children are in- 
structed in spiritual things, that you surrender 
them first to God, and then to worldly occupations. 
But, alas ! this order is commonly reversed. . . . 
The whole power of the Christian church lieth in 
the young, and, if they are neglected, it will be- 
come like a garden that is neglected in the spring 
season." Again, he says, "Are we not unwise? 
We can merit heaven or hell in our children, and 
yet we regard it not. Of what use will your acts 
of piety be to you, if you neglect the training of 
your children? . . . Believe me, it is much more 
important that you bestow care and attention 
upon the education of your children, than that 
you buy indulgences, repeat prayers, perform pil- 
grimages, or make many vows. . . . Those who 
knowingly neglect their children, and let them 
grow up without the nurture and fear of the Lord, 
are the destroyers of their children." 

In 1530, Luther published a discourse, the ob- 
ject of which was to enforce the obligation of 
parents to send their children to school. In this, 
he says, " God hath given you children and the 
means of their support, not merelv that you may 



442 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



find your pleasure in them, or bring them up for 
worldly splendour, but he hath strictly commanded 
you to train them up for his service." 

In 1527, a visitation was made of the churches 
and schools of the electorate of Saxony, in which 
more than thirty men were employed a whole 
year. The result in respect to education was, 
that "the Saxon school system," as it was called, 
was drawn up by the joint labours of Luther and 
Melancthon ; and thus the foundation was laid for 
the magnificent organization of schools to which 
Germany owes so much of her present fame. 
The reformers were the fathers of the German 
system of education, improved indeed, but never 
radically changed by their successors for a. period 
of three centuries. The traveller, that visits 
Eisleben, sees in a flourishing condition the very 
gymnasium which was established by Luther as 
the last act of his fife. The school of Pforta, 
near Naumburg, where a greater number of accom- 
plished classical scholars have been educated than 
in any other gymnasium or grammar school in the 
world, had a similar origin. It was in consequence 
of Luther's counsels that the old monastery of 
that name, was, with all its funds, converted into 
a learned school. 

In the Saxon schools, founded upon the plan 
of Luther and Melancthon, the languages took 
the precedence of all other studies. The forenoon 
session was two hours every day; the afternoon 
three, except Wednesdays and Saturdays, when 
only the musical exercise of one hour was held, as 
it was every other afternoon. The catechism was 



PROMOTER OF EDUCATION. 



443 



taught every Saturday forenoon. Thus, of the 
twenty-six school-hours in the week, eighteen 
were devoted to the languages, six to music, and 
two to the subject of religion. There was, how- 
ever, further provision made for the religious edu- 
cation of the pupils. They went to the village 
church or to the public chapel every morning, at 
about five or six o'clock, sung hymns in Latin and 
German, and read the Scriptures and the cate- 
chism aloud, in Latin and then in German, and 
repeated prayers. They had a similar evening 
service. Besides, the schools were kept seven 
days in the week ; or, in other words, there were 
regular Sunday-schools then as now, only the 
teachers were the same as on other days of the 
week. The pupils were, early on Lord's day 
mornings, conducted to the church for the matins, 
as all such morning services were called. Next, 
they had a lesson from the Bible, or the catechism, 
in the school-room. At eleven or twelve o'clock, 
they attended on the principal public service of 
the day. Sometimes, the younger classes re- 
mained at the school-room, where they received 
religious instruction better adapted to their capa- 
cities than that given in the pulpit. The older 
pupils were carefully examined upon the sermons 
which they had heard. The order was varied in 
different schools, as well as the exercises them- 
selves ; but the above general statement is suffi- 
ciently accurate to illustrate the way in which the 
day was passed in the schools. From all this, it 
will appear that the nineteenth century has made 
less advance than is commonly supposed upon the 



444 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



sixteenth, in respect to the religious education of 
the young. In respect to books and organizations, 
there is a great difference ; in respect to the thing 
itself, the object sought, the comparison would not 
be discreditable to the reformer. A volume might 
be made up of Luther's views of education, be- 
ginning with domestic training, and ascending 
through the lower schools to the university; but 
enough has been said to indicate his comprehen- 
sive views in respect to schools. 

Section IV. — Luther as a Lover of Music. 

Allusion has frequently been made, in the fore- 
going account, to Luther's musical tastes and ta- 
lents. He was early known as a melodious singer; 
and it was in this capacity that he had won the 
kind regards of Madam Cotta, his first patroness. 
His last evening before entering the cloister was 
devoted to musical and social pleasures. It was 
to be expected, therefore, that, when the work 
of the Reformation was moving successfully on, 
sacred music should be called in to its aid : so it 
was in point of fact. Luther early employed his 
poetical talents in composing original hymns, and 
in translating and adapting to his use the better 
Latin hymns. A version of the Psalms, gene- 
rally, was never made for public worship in Ger- 
many. Of hymn-books the Lutheran church has 
a plentiful supply; of psalm-books none, though a 
few psalms were versified by Luther and appended 
to his collection of hymns. In 1524, the first 
hymn-book of Luther, accompanied by the music 
set to the words, in which Walther lent his assist- 



LOVER OF MUSIC. 



445 



ance, was published. Within twenty years from 
that time, one hundred and seventeen collections 
of hymns, by Luther and his friends, were printed. 
"These hymns," he says, in the preface, "are set 
to music in four parts, for no other reason than 
because of my desire that the young, who ought 
to be educated in music as well as in other good 
arts, might have something to take the place of 
worldly and amorous songs, and so learn some- 
thing useful, and practise something virtuous, as 
becometh the young. ... I would be glad to see 
all arts, and especially music, employed in the 
service of Him who created and made them." 

This book, which is so great a curiosity that 
it was reprinted in 1840, was used in families and 
social circles and schools, as well as in churches. 
In the history of the city of Hanover, we read 
that the Reformation was first introduced there, 
not by preachers, nor by religious tracts, but by 
the hymns of Luther, which the people sung with 
delight. In his second edition, in 1533, he com- 
plains that his hymns had been altered, and others 
published under his name. In this new collec- 
tion, therefore, he added two to his own hymns 
(which, at first, were twenty-nine in number) and 
several old hymns from the Middle Ages, and, 
finally, fifteen new ones by his friends and con- 
temporaries, remarking, at the same time, in re- 
spect to the last, that, of the many which were 
in circulation, only a few deserved a place in the 
collection. 

Luther himself composed music for several of 
his hymns, which was not only good in itself, but 

38 



446 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



agreed beautifully with the sentiment expressed 
by the words.* The same Walther, mentioned 
above, says : " I have spent many a happy hour 
in singing with him, and have often seen the dear 
man so happy and joyful in spirit, while singing, 
that he could neither tire, nor be satisfied. He 
conversed splendidly upon music. Forty years 
ago, when he was arranging the mass [commu- 
nion] service in German, at Wittenberg, he sent 
for the elector's old chorister, Rupf, and myself, 
to confer with us about the music for the Epistles 
and Gospels. . . . He himself composed tunes for 
the epistles and gospels, and the words of Christ 
at the institution of the supper, and sung them to 
me, and asked my opinion of them. He kept me 
three weeks at Wittenberg, writing the notes for 
a few gospels and epistles, till the first German 
mass Avas sung in the parish church. I was 
obliged to stay and hear it, and to take a copy of 
it with me to Torgau, for the elector, at the doc- 
tor's command." We select the following from a 
large mass of Luther's sayings in regard to music : 
" It is a beautiful and lovely gift of God ; it hath 
often so excited and moved me, as to give me a 
desire to preach. I have always been fond of 
music. He who understandeth this art is the 
right sort of man, and is fit for any thing else. 
It is needful that music be taught in schools. A 
schoolmaster must be able to sing, or I do not 
think much of him. Music cometh near to theo- 
logy ; I would not exchange my little knowledge 



* There appears to be no evidence that " Old Hundred" was com- 
posed by Luther, though it has often been ascribed to him. 



LOVER OF MUSIC. 



447 



of it for much money. The young should be con- 
stantly exercised in this art, for it refines and im- 
proves men. Singing is the best of arts and exer- 
cises ; it is not of a worldly character, and is an 
antidote for all contentions and quarrels. Singers 
are not gloomy, but joyful, and sing their cares 
away. There can be no doubt that, in minds 
which are affected by music, are the seeds of 
much that is good ; and those who are not affected 
by jt, I regard as stocks and stones. . . . Music 
effecteth what theology alone can effect besides — 
it giveth peace and a joyful mind. . . . Therefore 
the prophets have employed no art as they have 
music ; inasmuch as they have put their theology, 
not into geometry, or arithmetic, or astronomy, but 
into music. Hence it cometh, that, by teaching 
the truth in psalms and hymns, they have joined 
theology and music in close union." 



448 LIFE OF LUTHER, [1525. 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS OF LUTHER'S LIFE, FROM HIS MAR- 
RIAGE IN 1525 TO HIS DEATH IN 1546. 

Section I. — From Luther's Marriage to the Completion of 
the Augsburg Confession in 1530. 

OTH the friends 
and the enemies of 
Luther had been 
astonished by his 
selecting such a 
time as the very 
midst of the turmoil 
of the Peasants' 
War, to celebrate 
his marriage with 
a fair nun. His 
friends censured his 
imprudence, his foes interpreted the act to his 
ignominy. The papal writers represented the 
great beauty of Catharine von Bora as proving a 
snare to Luther, while the Protestant writers, in 
defence of the reformer, detracted quite as much 
from her beauty as is consistent with the like- 
nesses taken of her by Cranach. 

The death of Frederic, Elector of Saxony, had 
emboldened the Catholic princes, who hoped that 
the fall of this pillar of Protestantism would greatly 
weaken the cause of Luther. The latter, not yet 




JE. 41.] 



DEATH OF FREDERIC. 



449 



knowing the firmness of the new elector, who 
proved himself so heroic at the presentation of 
the Augsburg Confession to the diet in 1530, 
thought it prudent to attempt a reconciliation 
with Henry, King of England, and George, Duke 
of Saxony, the bitterest of his enemies on the 
throne, and therefore wrote them respectively very 
humble letters, which, however, instead of answer- 
ing their purpose, were received with scorn. 

The year 1527 was one of sadness to Luther. 
His friends were persecuted, and some of them 
put to death, and he himself fell into a state of 
melancholy and despondency, of which Bugenha- 
gen and Justus Jonas have left us a memorable 
detailed account. How far all this was the effect 
of bodily disease and other natural causes, or how 
far it was a visitation from the evil spirit, as Lu- 
ther himself believed, it is not our province to 
determine. About the same time an epidemic, 
or the plague, as it was termed, raged so at Wit- 
tenberg that the university was temporarily re- 
moved to Jena. Near the middle of the year 
1527, the great work of visitation was begun by 
Melancthon and others, and ended in 1529. The 
surprising ignorance which Luther found, as well 
among the priests as the people, induced him in 
the following year to write those monuments of 
his genius as a popular and catechetical writer, 
the Larger and the Smaller Catechism. What 
he did for schools need not here be repeated. 
Meanwhile, the controversy on the real presence 
of Christ in the eucharist, between Luther and 
Zwingle and their respective adherents, had grown 

38* 



450 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1525 



so warm and threatened such serious consequences, 
that Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, a man of enlarged 
views and enlightened policy, more so perhaps 
than any other of the Protestant rulers, proposed 
to have both parties meet for friendly conference, 
and such a meeting finally took place in the Mar- 
burg Colloquy, October 1, 1529, but to no very 
good purpose. 

The diet of Spire, which was held in the same 
year, had come to a decision unfavourable to the 
interests of the evangelical party, which called 
forth the Protest that has since given name to 
the opposers of papal error and corruption. As 
there were now ominous indications of a com- 
bined hostility of the Papal rulers against the 
Protestants, it was proposed by the latter to 
enter into a league for mutual defence. Luther 
opposed the measure, saying, " He would rather 
die ten times than have the consciousness that 
the gospel preached by him was the occasion of 
bloodshed ;" a fresh proof that Luther trusted not 
in the power of the sword, but in the power of 
truth ; yet what (to human view) would have be- 
come of the Protestant states of Germany, if they 
had followed his views in respect to defensive war ? 

Early in the spring of 1530, the elector wrote 
to Luther and other Wittenberg theologians, in- 
forming them that the emperor had called a diet 
to be held at Augsburg, April 8, at which his ma- 
jesty was to be present in person. Inasmuch as 
it was intended to make this diet answer the pur- 
pose of a council in settling the difficulties between 
the religious parties, the elector said : " It is ne- 



2E. 41.] 



DIET OF AUGSBURG. 



451 



cessary that we have a clear understanding among 
ourselves, touching the articles to be maintained 
as well of rites and ceremonies as of faith, so that 
both we and other members of the diet who have 
embraced the pure evangelical doctrines, may know 
how far we can, with propriety and a good con- 
science, be a party in the transactions." He di- 
rected, therefore, that they draw up such articles 
as should seem to them best, and appear with them 
before him, at Torgau, on the 20th of March. He 
also instructed Luther, Jonas and Melancthon to 
make arrangements to be absent from the univer- 
sity, and to accompany him, together with Spa- 
latin and Agricola, as far as Coburg, on the way 
to Augsburg. They entered upon this journey, 
April 3, and Luther preached on the way at Wei- 
mar, Saalfeld, Grafenthal, Neustadt, and frequently 
at Coburg. On the 21st, the elector and the rest 
of the company proceeded to Augsburg, while Lu- 
ther, for reasons unknown to him, was left behind 
to remain at Coburg. The elector thought it more 
prudent to employ the mild and peaceful Melanc- 
thon in negotiating with the Papists, having Lu- 
ther, at the same time, within reach, to be consulted 
whenever it should appear necessary. Luther was 
accordingly conducted to the electoral palace, situ- 
ated on a bold eminence, for a residence of nearly 
six months. He, his companion Dietrich, and his 
servant Cyriac, resided here alone, with no company 
but the keepers and attendants and occasional visit- 
ers, and had the whole of the great building, which 
crowns the hill and the fortress, to themselves. 
Being here without books for several weeks, he 



452 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1525. 



amused himself in a playful description of a diet 
held by the birds which congregated about his 
lofty abode. 

Here the old complaint from which he had 
^suffered so much, that of a roaring noise in his 
head, especially in his left ear, returned upon 
him; and, as usual, Satan came with it, armed 
with the fiery darts of temptation. Notwith- 
standing Luther's ill health and dejection, he 
translated the prophetical writings, wrote the 
well-known sermon enforcing upon parents the 
duty of sending their children to school, and 
other treatises, besides a great number of letters 
to the elector and to his friends concerning the 
proceeding of this diet. Though Melancthon was 
the chief agent in drawing up the Augsburg 
Confession and the Apology, or defence of it, it 
was Luther, standing behind the curtain, that 
exercised control over the minds of the evan- 
gelical princes and theologians. As formerly in 
his Patmos, so here in his Sinai, as he called it, 
his was the ruling spirit. 

The letters of Luther, from the time of his 
marriage to that of his death, are so numerous 
and so abound in incident that they serve well 
as a substitute for a minute journal. It will be 
proper, therefore, to take advantage of this cir- 
cumstance, and follow him through some of the 
scenes already alluded to. 

In a letter to Amsdorf, now pastor at Magde-* 
burg, written June 21, 1525, after saying that 
the report of his sudden marriage with Catharine 
von Bora is true, and that he took this step partly 



M 41.] 



PEASANTS' WAR. 



453 



in compliance with the wish of his father, partly 
to confirm his own teaching by example, and 
partly to show some degree of boldness at a 
time when everybody is terror-struck, adding, 
incidentally, that he loves his wife, though he 
is not enamoured or fired with passion, he thus 
speaks of the Peasants' War, which was then 
raging : " Meiningen, Mellerstadt, Neustadt and 
Marstadt, with ten other towns, [in the south- 
west of Saxony,] have surrendered to the elector, 
and he is restoring peace and order there. It is 
ascertained that in Franconia about eleven thou- 
sand peasants are slain in three different places, 
sixty-one bombs taken, and the citadel of Wirtem- 
berg liberated. The Margrave Casimir [of the 
house of Brandenburg, which possessed one or 
two principalities in the vicinity of Bayreuth] 
is proceeding furiously against his subjects, for 
having violated their faith. In the duchy of Wir- 
temberg six thousand have been slain; in other 
parts of Suabia ten thousand. The Duke of Lor- 
raine, it is said, hath put to the sword twenty 
thousand in Alsace. Thus the miserable peasants 
are everywhere cut down. How it is in Bam- 
berg, we shall soon hear. But in Breisgau [Ba- 
den] the insurrection is still in progress, and also 
in the Tyrol, so much so that from Inspruck to 
Trent all is in a state of commotion, and the 
Bishops of Brixen and of Trent are put to flight. 
• Duke George is about to hold a conference at 
Dessau with the Margrave and the Archbishop of 
Mainz. The report is, that, inflated with his suc- 
cess, he will pursue me. He thinketh me to be 



454 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1525. 



like unto Muncer in doctrine. But Christ will 
bestow his grace. See that he do not make an 
attack upon Magdeburg." 

In the following letter to the elector (July 20) 
are some interesting facts relating to Spalatin : 
" George Spalatin hath informed me that he is 
called on by your grace to take into further con- 
sideration the proposal to make him preacher at 
Altenburg, and desireth me to write your grace 
on this behalf. I therefore humbly submit unto 
you, that I remain of the same opinion as before. 
For he is a man of learning, a comely speaker, of 
good manners and morals, and, what affecteth me 
most, is of a pure and upright heart, and will deal 
faithfully with the word of God and with souls. 
Whether his health is too feeble, the experiment 
must show." 

To Brismann, of Konigsberg, he writes, Au- 
gust 16 : "If the poison of Carlstadt or Zwingle 
concerning the sacrament reacheth unto you, be 
on your guard against it. . . . Muncer and the 
peasants have so prostrated the gospel with us, 
and so aroused the Papists, that it seemeth as if 
it must all be built up again. For which reason 
I have testified to the gospel not only by word 
but by deed, in marrying a nun in the face of my 
enemies, who are triumphing and crying 'Io!' 
6 Io !' that I might not, though old and unsuitable, 
seem to yield up the ground ; and I shall do some 
other things, if I am able, which will trouble them 
and make known God's word. 

"Duke George, the Elector of Brandenburg, 
and the two Dukes of Brunswick have sworn to 



JE. 41.] 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 



455 



each other that the}^ will restore the old order of 
things. Our Elector John, though much bela- 
boured by George, standeth firm, so that the 
latter is almost beside himself and bursting with 
anger. The Landgrave of Hesse is also believed 
to stand firm, though he hath been visited and 
urged by the Duke of Brunswick, as delegate from 
the council of princes. The imperial cities are 
now consulting how they shall stand by the gos- 
pel, although threatened by angry princes." 

That the university should not prosper under 
such circumstances was almost a matter of course. 
Luther wrote to Spalatin, September 6, not a little 
alarmed : " The report hath come to our ears that 
the elector's mind is alienated from our univer- 
sity, and that he is displeased with our move- 
ments as unjustifiable. We have great difficulty 
in keeping our students, w T ho will rush forth at 
every gate and go into all the world, if these 
reports are found to be true." 

The next week he wrote to the elector: "Al- 
though I and all the rest confidently rely on your 
grace's promise concerning the university, still we 
perceive that you are hindered by other necessary 
occupations, and particularly by the assembly of 
the estates. I cannot, therefore, omit to remind 
you of it, and to beg that you will send some one 
to us, or write and inform us of your purposes. 
Otherwise, since many lectures are dropped, and 
some not being yet paid for are likely to be dis- 
continued, there will be reason to fear that we 
shall be unable to retain the students." 

To his friend Stiefel he wrote, September 29 : 



456 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



1525. 



" I have this night caused thirteen nuns to be re- 
moved out of Duke George's dominions, and thus 
snatched from the raging tyrant the spoils of 
Christ. Our princes [the elector and his son] 
have openly espoused the gospel. Master Ebe- 
rard [prior of the cloister at Wittenberg] is made 
Bishop at Altenburg with Spalatin. The income 
of the monastery we have resigned to the elector, 
and I live as a private householder, remaining in 
the monastery." 

On occasion of Spalatin's marriage, Luther 
wrote, December 6 : " Grace and peace in the 
Lord, and joy in your sweet wife, also from the 
Lord. As disagreeable as your marriage is to 
your Baalitish brethren, [the priests of Alten- 
burg,] so agreeable is it to me. God hath granted 
me nothing more agreeable, the gospel excepted, 
than the privilege of hearing and knowing that 
you are a husband. With what feelings and for 
what causes I was detained from attending your 
joyful wedding, Master Eberard will explain. I 
cannot now travel so safely as I could under a 
prince who had not declared his views. ... I, in 
my poverty, would have sent you that gold cup 
which you gave me at my marriage, had I not 
feared it would offend you. I, therefore, send you 
all that remains of those presents, not knowing 
whether it came from you or not. My affection 
you will regard as much in a small gift as in a 
great one." So violent was the opposition of the 
canons and priests at Altenburg to this infraction 
of the papal law, requiring celibacy in the clergy, 
that it was necessary for Luther to request pro- 
tection for his friend of the elector. 



JE. 41. J 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 



457 



The following letter to Link of Nuremberg, writ- 
ten near the close of December, shows what dif- 
ferent cares and thoughts often occupied Luther's 
mind: "The King of England, to whom, at the 
instance of the King of Denmark, I wrote an hum- 
ble and suppliant letter, with pleasant anticipations 
and good and pure intentions, hath replied to me 
with a bitterness which showeth that he, like Duke 
George, rejoiceth at an opportunity for revenge. 
So impotent and womanly are the minds of these 
tyrants, so sordid and vulgar, that, thanks to Christ, 
and joy to myself ! it is sufficient revenge for me to 
despise Satan, their god, together with themselves. 

" I rejoice at the promise you make of sending 
me garden seeds in the spring. Send as many as 
you can. I desire them and shall expect them. 
If there is any thing I can send you in turn, order 
it and it shall be done. For, while Satan and his 
subjects rage, I will laugh and contemplate gar- 
dens, which are God's blessings, and enjoy them 
to his praise. 

" Because with us barbarians there are no arts 
nor exercise of the ingenuity, I and my servant 
Wolfgang have taken up the art of turning. We 
send you this gold piece, that you may, at your 
convenience, procure some instruments for hollow- 
ing and turning, together with two or three screws 
for the lathe, which any turner will show you. We 
have instruments here, but we wish to get some 
more elegant, after your Nuremberg fashion. If 
they cost more, the money shall be sent, though I 
think all such things are cheaper with you than 
with us. Thus, if the world shall be unwilling to 

39 



458 



LIFE OP LUTHER. 



[1525 



support us to preach the gospel, we will learn to 
live by the labour of our hands, and then, after 
the example of our heavenly Father, serve the 
unworthy and ungrateful." 

In a similar strain he wrote to Amsdorf, at the 
beginning of the new year, January 3, 1526 : 
" By Bruno, the bearer of this, I send you seven 
florins, my dear Amsdorf, to pay for the butter 
and dried fish. For though I have lost your let- 
ter, I recollect that this is about the amount due 
you. I wrote to Duke George a very humble and 
candid letter, and he answered me, according to 
his character, with that stolidity and rustic fero- 
city which runs in his Bohemian blood. The 
letter is every way worthy of himself. You shall 
see a copy of it. It is currently reported that 
you have taken that Suabian damsel, my former 
flame, for your wife. It will be odd if you reta- 
liate upon me by such a secret movement." 

Of the use he made of his influence with the 
elector, we have a good example in a letter, writ- 
ten about the middle of April : " First," says he, 
" I present a request from a young singer by the 
name of Holzwart, whom your grace hath sup- 
ported one year, with the encouragement that you 
would do better by him, if you could, afterward, as 
the petition showeth. He appeareth to have good 
talents. All which is referred to your good pleasure. 

" Secondly, a request already made for a nun 
of Nimptschen, near Grimma, by the name of 
Alsey Gaudelitz, that she may recover something 
from the cloister to which she gave much. No 
answer hath yet been received. 



JE. 42.] 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 



459 



" Thirdly, God hath sent us two guardians [su- 
periors in a monastery] from France. They were 
plundered on their way, as they were coining 
hither to study theology. The pastor and my- 
self are supporting them, relying upon your gra- 
cious aid, hoping you would give them five or six 
gulden. If you cannot, then we must dismiss 
them after giving what we can, and, after all, beg 
it again from your grace. God sendeth us many 
poor, and we are poor ourselves, and yet are pro- 
vided for. 

"Fourthly, the request of a pious man, whom 
I have thought of sending as preacher to Arnstadt. 
. . . He hath been here three years, and I have 
helped him what I could ; for what I do is from 
your grace's bounty, for I have nothing of my own 
to give. I wish your grace would grant him 
something, for he possesseth piety, learning and 
talents, but is poor and destitute, and I cannot do 
so much for him as is necessary. I refer it to 
your good pleasure. 

" Finally, I entreat for myself, as formerly, that 
your grace will not suffer the singing to be so neg- 
lected. The persons belonging to the choir [boys] 
are growing up, and the art of music deserveth, 
moreover, to be sustained by princes and lords. 
More than enough to support them here is applied 
elsewhere, without so great need. The monastic 
funds might usefully, and with the approbation of 
God, be applied to support such persons. 

" Enough for once ; please receive it graciously." 

The history of a certain cup or vessel, presented 
to Luther, is not only amusing, but strikingly illus- 



460 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1526. 



trative of the times and of the character of the 
parties concerned. Luther, in a note to his friend 
Hausmann, pastor at Zwickau, dated March 27, 
1526, says : "I thank you for the vessel. I did 
not expect it would be done up with so much la- 
bour and care, for it was well enclosed in a wicker- 
work of vines. But you excited the desire of 
my Katy too much, as is wont to be the case with 
these women. I am delighted with the minerals, 
but am unwilling to take them away from you. 
You have others to whom you can give them. If 
there is any thing else, don't waste it upon my 
curiosity." In a letter, written about three weeks 
afterward to Agricola, at Eisleben, recommending 
a young man about to open a school there, he says : 
" That vessel from Zwickau, oh ! how changed it is 
since you saw it, and how beautiful ! But concern- 
ing this and the cup presented me by Meinhard, at 
another time. For of these magnificent things I 
cannot write to-day, and so briefly." A month 
later he writes to the same : " I send you that 
pewter and glass vessel before it finds another 
owner." And then in a postscript, adds : " Behold, 
when I was ready to give the letter to the mes- 
senger, and looked for the cup, my Katy, that 
enemy in ambush, had carried it off. I would 
have got hold of it, but our provosts and plebeians, 
[probably certain members of the household,] who, 
perhaps, have taken it in charge, conspired together 
and hindered me. It must be put off, therefore, 
till she gets up from childbed, and when she brings 
it forth I will seize it for you." The end of the 
story is given in a subsequent letter to Hausmann : 



M. 42.] 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 



461 



" My chain [wife] tenaciously holds the glass 
vessel ornamented and presented me by yourself. 
Otherwise, Agricola of Eisleben would have beg- 
ged it away from me." 

A clay or two afterward, we find him writing to 
the elector the following request, in behalf of an 
old schoolmaster of his : " The bearer of this, Mr. 
Bigancl, hath given up his parish at Waltershausen 
to the town-council, in consequence of an agree- 
ment, made by yourself, to allow him thirty florins 
annually from the church funds. Now the money 
doth not come, perhaps the council have not those 
funds in charge, and this old man must wander 
abroad for his living. As he was my schoolmas- 
ter, whom it is my duty to honour, I humbly beg 
your grace not to suffer my old schoolmaster to 
be deprived of his money, but graciously to aid 
him, that he may not be left to beg in his old age." 

At the close of a note to his brother-in-law, 
Ruhel, he thus announces the birth of his first- 
born : " Please say to Agricola, for me, that my 
dear Katy hath, by the great blessing of God, 
borne me a son, John Luther, yesterday, at two 
o'clock, the very day when dat [he gives] standeth 
in the calendar ; and that he must not wonder that 
I storm him so early with this intelligence, for he 
himself ought to think, about this time, what it is 
to have sons. Greet the dear mother of your 
children, and Agricola's Elsey. My sick Katy is 
the cause of my sending you only this scrawl." 
Referring to tire same event in a letter to Spala- 
tin, he speaks of being a "happy husband, and 
having, by the great blessing of God, been pre 

39* 



462 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1526. 



sented with a son from the best of wives and the 
most excellent of women and closes by saying, 
"When you come to see us, will you still find the 
old monuments of our friendship and intimacy? 
I have planted a garden, and built a fountain. 
Come, and you shall be crowned with lilies and 
roses." To Agricola he writes again, " I have 
received your letter, in which you say my mother 
was hindered from coining to me. Let Christ 
do what he pleaseth, and it will be well. Little 
John Luther is doing well, though he is a slender 
child, and hath too little nourishment from his 
mother." 

As a specimen of his ecclesiastical correspond- 
ence, we will present a letter, addressed August 
8, 1526, to the Council of Miihlhausen, which was 
the head-quarters of Muncer's army the previous 
year: "Grace and peace in Christ, honourable, 
wise and dear sirs. At the command of our gra- 
cious lord, Duke John, Elector of Saxony, I have 
selected a preacher for his grace to send to you. 
That individual, John Mantel, reader in our church 
at Wittenberg, now cometh to you, who, as far as 
God giveth unto men to do, will, I hope, take the 
care of you, as a learned, affable, quiet, pious 
man. I beg you, therefore, to receive and regard 
him in a Christian manner, as I doubt not you will. 
And may Christ graciously look upon you and 
help you, after all your wretchedness, that rebel- 
lion may cease, and that you may learn to follow 
his pure and holy word. I would gladly have 
come with him, but our circumstances here would 
not allow it." 



JR. 42.] 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 



463 



August 28, he replies to an inquiry of Link, 
respecting parental authority, and maintains that 
it ought always to be asserted, though not always 
exercised, and then subjoins the following intelli- 
gence : " The diet of Spire is held as the Germans 
are wont to hold diets, with drinking and sports, 
and nothing more. Here there is nothing new, 
save that Wittenberg is fortified with such great 
labour, that, comparing the past with the present, 
you would hardly know it. I am now lecturing 
on Ecclesiastes, which is stubborn and refuses to 
be explained, so full is it of Hebraisms and of the 
obscurities of an unknown tongue ; nevertheless, 
by the grace of God, I shall break through the 
obstacles. Pray for me; and farewell, both you 
and your rib, whom may God bless in her ap- 
proaching crisis. My son is, by the mercy of 
Gocl, living and well. Philip [Melancthon,] who 
is a little better, and would be better still if he 
could have a respite from his labours, saluteth 
you." _ 

An interesting and lasting friendship commenced 
with the incident referred to in the subjoined note : 
" April 22. To Frederic, abbot at Nuremberg. 
Grace and peace. Though we are unknown to 
each other, I write to you, most excellent sir, 
because of what Link, my friend, and more than 
a friend to you, hath done in sending to me, in 
your name, a brass clock, a most acceptable pre- 
sent. This hath compelled me to become a disci- 
ple of our mathematicians, to learn the forms and 
rules of one single clock ; for I never before saw 
such an one, so little am I acquainted with mathe- 



464 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1520. 



matical affairs. Would that I had the power to 
respond in like manner to the kindness expressed 
by this gift; nothing would please me more." 

In other letters, which cannot be quoted, he 
speaks of having received garden-seeds, ("all of 
which, except the melons and cucumbers, grew 
well,") and the turning instrument for which he 
wrote, together with a quadrant and a wooden 
clock. " Send me," he says, in another letter, 
" seeds for my garden in as great variety as you 
can ; for, if I live, I will be a horticulturist." 

Many of Luther's letters refer to schools, and 
show an intense interest in teachers, both in the 
higher and in the lower, in public and in private 
schools. A letter written May 2, 1527, to Elsey 
von Kanitz, requesting her to open a girl's school 
in Wittenberg, presents the reformer in an inte- 
resting light. " My dear friend in Christ," he says, 
" I wrote to your dear aunt Anna von Plausig, re- 
questing her to send you to me for a time ; for I 
have desired to employ you in teaching yonng girls, 
and through you to give an example for others to 
follow. You shall be in my house and sit at my 
table, so that you shall have no risk nor trouble. 
I beg you, therefore, not to decline the proposal." 

Luther and his wife appear to have been ten- 
derly attached to the wife of John Agricola, school- 
teacher at Eisleben. A letter written to Agricola, 
in May, 1527, contains expressions of tenderness 
such as are often found in Luther's correspondence. 
" It seemeth to us best," he says, at the close, 
" that your Elsey should come and spend some 
days with us, for the sake of a change in the cli- 



JE. 43.] 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 



465 



mate, [Wittenberg was about seventy miles to the 
north-east of Eisleben.] Consult together con- 
cerning this matter, for we will gladly clo whatso- 
ever can in any way be beneficial to the wife who 
is so agreeable to you, and to the woman who is so 
sincere and virtuous. My Ivaty, who is troubled 
again with vomiting, nausea, and dizziness of the 
head, but not very ill, heartily saluteth you and 
your Elsey. My little Jonny is lively and robust, 
and eats and drinks like a hero." 

This amiable lady appears to have suffered 
much, and to have become dejected, especially as 
her husband was at that time called from home ; 
for we find Luther writing to her, June 10th, thus : 
" Dear Elsey. Grace and peace. I had it in mind 
lately to write to you, but Mr. Matthes was away 
before I was aware of it. By this time I suppose 
your husband hath returned home, so that it is not 
so ill with you. You must not be so desponding 
and fearful, but remember that Christ is near to 
help you to bear your sufferings. For he hath not 
so forsaken you as your flesh and blood suggest. 
Cry unto him earnestly, and be assured he will 
hear you; for you know it is his way to help, 
strengthen and comfort all who desire it. Be com- 
forted then, and consider that he hath suffered 
more for you than you can ever suffer for him.^ 
We will also pray, and pray earnestly, that God 
will accept you through his Son, and strengthen 
you in body and in soul. Greet your husband and 
all yours in our name." 

Luther's heart was full of benevolence, and no 
opportunity for benefiting the poor was allowed to 



466 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1527. 



pass unimproved. The Franciscan cloister, which 
had been the burial-place for the electoral family 
time out of mind, was now vacant, the monks hav- 
ing left their cells. The elector had given a part 
of the grounds and buildings to a man by the name 
of Burger. Luther wrote to the former : " We 
have conversed with Burger about it, and he is 
willing to give the place up for the benefit of the 
poor, in the hope that you will bestow upon him 
another in its place. Since, then, the cloister, as 
the burial-place of princes, cannot be better used 
. . . than in the service of God and for the relief 
of the poor, in whom Christ himself is served; 
therefore I humbly request, in conjunction with 
the city-council, that your grace will grant that 
the cloister, together with the grounds and build- 
ings of Burger, be given to our Lord Jesus Christ 
as a retreat and residence for the poor, as the mem- 
bers of his body." 

A melancholy period in Luther's life now ensues. 
The plague appeared at Wittenberg, and the peo- 
ple fled in terror ; the university was removed to 
Jena, and Luther, overcome in body and in mind, 
passed through a scene of the deepest gloom, agony 
and despair. He writes to Melancthon, August 2 : 
" For more than a week I have been tossing in 
death and hell, so prostrate in body as to tremble 
all over. Christ hath been almost wholly lost, and 
I have been agitated with the billows and storms 
of despair and blasphemy against God. But God, 
moved by the prayers of the saints,* hath began 
to have compassion on me, and hath delivered me 



* His Christian friends. 



^.43.] EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 467 

from the lowest hell. Pray continually for me, as 
I do for you. I believe my conflict will concern 
others as well as myself. The plague is here, we 
are fully persuaded, but we hope it will be mild 
and gentle with us, the tender flock of Christ, al- 
ready afflicted with the hatred of the whole world 
and our own sufferings, to say nothing of our po- 
verty and other humbling circumstances." Ten 
days later, he writes to Justus Menius : "Cease 
not to pray earnestly for me and to comfort me, 
for this conflict is above my power. Thus far 
Christ hath been a faithful Saviour, nor do I de- 
spair that he will be so for evermore. I have been 
sick, not only in body, but much more in soul, 
Satan and his angels have, with the permission 
of God my Saviour, so vexed and tormented me." 
To Spalatin he says, in a letter dated August 19th : 
" The plague hath indeed begun here, but it is 
mild, though with the people there is a wonderful 
fear and fleeing away, so that I never saw the like 
of Satan's work before. He rejoiceth that he can 
so terrify men's hearts as to disperse and ruin this 
our university, which he, not without cause, hateth 
above all others. Still, in all this time, there have 
been but eighteen deaths in the town, including 
children. In the fisher's quarter [south] it hath 
raged vehemently ; in our quarter [east] there hath 
been no death, though all are buried here. . . . 
Justus Jonas's little son John is dead. Jonas him- 
self hath gone to his native place, ... so that Bugen- 
hagen and I are here alone with the chaplains." 

An evangelical preacher at Halle, George Wink- 
ler by name, had been murdered, at the instiga- 



468 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1527. 



tion, as some supposed, of the Archbishop of 
Mainz, who was unwilling that the light should 
break in upon this favourite residence of his. Lu- 
ther, though still troubled with fierce temptation, 
wrote a letter of encouragement to the Christians 
of Halle. "I have long purposed," he says, "my 
dear friends, to write to you a letter of consolation 
for the calamity which Satan hath brought upon 
you by the murder of the good and pious Mas- 
ter George, thereby depriving you of a faithful 
preacher, and of the word of God ; but I have in 
divers ways been hindered, chiefly by my own ill- 
ness ; and though I am not yet through with my 
difficulties, I can wait no longer. For though we 
would not be comforted, still it would be wrong to 
be silent concerning such a scandalous and trea- 
cherous murder, and so let it pass, and leave the 
blood, whereby the word of God hath been testi- 
fied, to be buried in the ground. Therefore I will 
publish it, and help it to cry unto heaven, so that, 
as much as in us lieth, such a murder shall not 
keep silence, till God, the merciful father and the 
just judge, hear it, as he did Abel's ; and take ven- 
geance on the old enemy, murderer and traitor, 
who hath instigated this act, and cause that the 
blood of Master George be a seed sown in the 
earth by Satan and his emissaries, which shall 
bring forth a hundred fold; so that, instead of one 
murdered George, a hundred true preachers shall 
spring up, who shall do Satan a thousand times 
more harm than one man could do." 

The following letter to Amsdorf has a peculiar 
interest, as being written on the tenth anniversary 



ML 43.] EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 469 

of his attack upon Tetzel's indulgences : " Grace 
and peace. It pleaseth the Lord, my dear Ams- 
dorf, that I, who have formerly comforted so many 
others, should myself now be destitute of all com- 
fort. One thing I ask, and do you ask the same 
with me, namely, that my Christ do with me what 
he will, only that he leave me not to be ungrate- 
ful and to become his enemy, whom I have here- 
tofore preached and adored with such zeal and 
fervour, although I have, in the mean time, of- 
fended him with many and great sins. Satan 
seeketh to have another Job given over to him. 
. . . My house beginneth to be an hospital. Anna, 
wife of Augustine [Schurf,] hath had the plague, 
but is recovering. . . . For my Katy, who is in cri- 
tical circumstances, I have great fears. My little 
John is sick, and hath eaten nothing for three days. 
. . . Thus we have fightings without, and fears, 
great fears within; Christ visiteth us. One solace 
remaineth, which we can oppose to Satan, namely, 
that we have the word of Glod for saving the souls 
that believe, however it may be with our bodies. 
Commend us to the brethren, and pray for us, that 
we may patiently bear the hand of the Lord that 
is upon us, and conquer the power and devices of 
Satan, whether by our death or by our life. Wit- 
tenberg, All-saints' day, the tenth year from the 
trampling down of indulgences." 

The last day of the year 1527, he says : "We 
are all well, except Luther himself, who, though 
well in body, suffereth without from all the world, 
and within from Satan and all his angels." The 
following letter, in which he playfully rebukes 

40 



470 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1527. 



Justus Menius and his other Erfurt friends for 
not visiting him when he was at Weimar, near by 
them, brings the author before us again in his old 
and easy attire : " I expected some of you would 
come and visit me here, and wonder what could 
hinder you, since there was no obstacle in the 
length nor breadth nor height of the way, for the 
sky and sun were serene above. I will excuse you 
for this neglect, if you will some time explain to me 
the reason of such a breach of the laws of friend- 
ship, charity and humanity. Erfurt is Erfurt; 
Erfurt will be Erfurt ; Erfurt always was Erfurt. 
What else can I think or say? Greet the breth- 
ren for me, and your Eve and Abels and Seths." 

We have already had occasion to speak of Nu- 
remberg as a renowned and refined city, which 
shone like a bright star in the time of the Refor- 
mation. There lived Pirkheimer, the patrician and 
scholar; there preached Link andOsiander; there 
was the great Diirer, the painter, and Eoban Hess, 
the elegant scholar and poet, and Camerarius, the 
classical teacher, and Baumgartner and others. 
Diirer died April 6, 1528, and his death called 
forth a beautiful elegy from his friend Hess, a copy 
of which Luther thus acknowledged : " I have re- 
ceived a second letter from you, together with an 
Elegy on Diirer, and thus, contrary to my expec- 
tation, you are in advance of my reply to your 
former letter. For I had resolved to reply by the 
first carrier I should find. As to Diirer, it is a 
pious act to mourn over the loss of so excellent a 
man. But it is yours to pronounce him happy 
that Christ hath taken him away so well prepared, 



JE. 44.] 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 



471 



and by so peaceful an end, from times so turbu- 
lent, and to be, perhaps, more turbulent still, lest 
he, who was worthy of the happiest times, should 
live to see the most wretched. Let him rest in 
peace, then, with his fathers. I thank you next 
for the love which breathes, or rather flames and 
burns, in every word of both your letters. Not 
that I am worthy of such praise or love, but be- 
cause I cheerfully suffer myself to be exalted by 
the testimony and favour of the good against Satan 
and his ministers, who diligently and incessantly 
seek my blood and extinguish me, so that I can 
boast of going the way of Paul, through honour 
and dishonour, through good report and evil re- 
port. . . . Blessed be my Lord Jesus Christ, who 
hath willed I should be such, not that I should 
boast, but that many through me should be saved 
from these pestilent spirits. . . . When I see this 
prayer, which I breathe every hour, fulfilled, I 
think myself happy; and regard it as an abundant 
reward of my labours to know that I live only to 
serve others. I rejoice, therefore, not so much in 
the praise which you, in your partiality, abun- 
dantly bestow, as in the truth to which you testify 
by your candour and too great affection for me, and 
thus with great openness and simplicity confess 
Christ. For what can be more delightful to hear 
than that you, and others like you, stand strong 
against Satan by a substantial and pure know- 
ledge of Christ, when so many, whom we hoped 
would be pillars, fall, and are now worse enemies 
to us than the Turks ? I therefore pray the Lord 
Jesus Christ, that he will crown you with his bene- 



472 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1528. 



dictions, and preserve you, with us, perfect and un- 
blamable to his glorious appearing. Of news I 
have nothing to send you to your emporium, for 
Nuremberg itself is the eye, as it were, and ear of 
Germany, which seeth and heareth every thing, a 
part of which, perhaps, never cometh to our know- 
ledge. Salute your dearest doe, together with your 
dear fawns. The blessing of the Lord be upon 
you." How beautifully does Luther here place 
himself almost within the soul of the Nuremberg 
poet, and appropriate to himself, for the time being, 
the qualities of his mind ! 

To a letter written to Spalatin, dated Witten- 
berg, "in the aerial and ethereal house," (in allu- 
sion to the name of the owner, Luft, which means 
air,) he appends this postscript : " Pomeranus, 
[Bugenhagen, of Pomerania,] who goeth to Bruns- 
wick, saluteth you, and desireth you to pray for 
him. Justus Jonas, fighting against the gravel, 
saluteth you, and desireth you to pray that he may 
get the victory. Casper Cruciger saluteth you, 
and desireth you to pray for him that his hopes 
may be realized ; that is, if you do not understand 
it, that Duke George may be converted to Christ, 
or be bruised by Christ. John Mantell saluteth 
you, recently bereaved of a little son, the same 
day on which Bugenhagen lost his elder son Mi- 
chael, having lost his younger son John two weeks 
before, and desireth you to pray that for one son 
he may receive many. My Eve, joyful and well, 
with all of this convivial company, saluteth you, 
and desireth you to pray for her that her third 
offspring may come safely to the world." 



M 45.] EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 473 

The visitation of the churches for the purpose 
of doing away the evils of the papal system, and 
introducing the evangelical in its stead, continued 
after several interruptions into the year 1529. In 
February, Luther, who was still engaged in that 
work, in which more than thirty men had been 
employed, wrote to Spalatin the following lines, 
which give us some idea of the state of the people 
at that time : " We desire to know what you are 
doing in the visitation and how you succeed, and 
we are surprised that you do not mention this in 
your letter. We, on our part, confer a living when 
it is necessary ; and though it is small, yet it is an 
aid to the poor pastors to have two acres to culti- 
vate. Furthermore, we strenuously require a con- 
tribution from each individual. But the condition 
of the churches is most wretched ; the peasants 
learn nothing, know nothing, pray for nothing, do 
nothing, except abuse their liberty, neither con- 
fessing nor communing, just as if they were set 
free from all religion. For they have neglected 
their own papal ordinances ; they despise ours ; 
so that the administration of the papal bishops is 
horrid to contemplate." 

Luther, who believed that all physical evils, 
bodily pains, diseases, epidemics, earthquakes and 
calamities of every sort, were produced by a di- 
rect invisible agency of Satan, and who had full 
faith in astrology, was led by the strange and fright- 
ful character of the times, and by singular appear- 
ances in the heavens, to believe that the end of the 
world was at hand. After describing the Northern 
Lights, as they appeared on a certain evening, he 

40* 



474 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1529. 



says, "God knoweth what these signify." At 
another time, referring to the same and to a meteor 
which was seen at Breslau, and to some other pecu- 
liar appearances in the heavens, he says, " I believe 
these signify that the end of the world is at the 
door." This opinion is often repeated in his let- 
ters, but it is unnecessary to accumulate quotations. 

The following letter to Matthias, Bishop of Dant- 
zic, gives us a more pleasing view : " Reverend 
father and venerable in the Lord, your letters and 
present were very agreeable and acceptable to me 
in the Lord, since I thereby learned that, in your 
old age and before the end of life, you have been 
captivated and illuminated by the gospel of Christ, 
which I regard as the miraculous grace of God, 
knowing as I do how dignitaries of your order are 
wont to resist the word of God. The Lord Jesus, 
who hath begun a good work, perfect it. As you 
have a desire to see me, so it would give me in 
turn great joy in Christ to see your venerable gray 
hairs confessing Christ amidst this herd of hostile 
dignitaries, who dare to oppose. It is not in my 
power, however, to go to see you. May God, who 
is able to do it, grant that we may meet at least 
once ; and may he mercifully bless and keep you." 

A letter to Amsdorf, dated May 31, 1529, 
breathes the same pure spirit of love. He there 
says : " There is nothing new with us which you 
do not already know. These ministers of the word 
at Goslar, [the old capital of Hanover,] I send to 
you, that they may relate to you the condition of 
the church there. I beg you to receive, and hear 
them kindly. They seem to be good men, who 



M. 45.] EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 475 



deserve the favour of the pious ; and it is meet 
for you to know these things, inasmuch as you 
first laid the foundations of piety there, and have 
not unsuccessfully built thereon. It will animate 
these trembling believers to perceive our agreement 
and joy in this matter; and it will confound Satan 
and his instruments, or, at least, impede them. 
Therefore cherish and comfort them in the bowels 
of Christ. They who dread offences and are so 
solicitous for peace cannot but have great con- 
fidence in Christ." 

To the Christians in Goslar he wrote in the same 
spirit, saying, " I rejoice over you from the heart, 
and pray Grod, the Father of all grace, to uphold 
and prosper you in this way." June 14, Luther 
wrote to Justus Jonas, who was then occupied 
abroad in the work of visitation thus : " The wall 
of your house [in the west part of the town] must 
wait for bricks to be made in the senate's furnace. 
We have betrothed Dr. Augustin [Schurf 's] sister 
to [professor] Milich. Bugenhagen writes that he 
will soon return [from Hamburg,] and when he 
cometh, I [his substitute as city preacher] can act 
with you in the work of visitation, if it shall still 
be necessary. Philip [Melancthon] is wasting away 
under his anxiety for the church and the state." 

How perfectly overwhelmed Luther was with 
labours and cares, may be learned from the closing 
part of a letter to Link, in which he says, " You 
complain in your last letter that I have not replied 
to your inquiry. Be not surprised. If you wish 
for a reply, write and admonish me again. For I 
am everyday so overwhelmed with letters, that my 



476 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1529. 



table, benches, foot-stools, desks, windows, cases, 
boards and every thing are full of letters, inquiries, 
causes, complaints, petitions, &c. On me falleth the 
whole weight of the church and the state, as nei- 
ther the ecclesiastics nor magistrates perform their 
duties. You at Nuremberg sit and play in Paradise, 
because you have magistrates who provide all 
things for you to enjoy in security and peace." 

We find another striking proof that Luther took 
a deep interest in education, and that his opinion 
was of great weight on this subject, in the follow- 
ing instructive letter, written to Margrave George 
of Brandenburg, July 18, 1529 : "I have long 
delayed, though unwillingly, to reply to you, for at 
first I had not the time, when the messenger was 
here, and afterward I had no way to send. . . . But 
now I will tell you what Melancthon and myself, 
upon mature consideration, think best to be done. 

"First, we think the cloisters and foundations 
may continue to stand till their inmates die out. . . . 
Secondly, it would be exceedingly well to establish 
in one or two places in the principality a learned 
school, in which shall be taught, not only the Holy 
Scriptures, but law, and all the arts, from whence 
preachers, pastors, clerks, counsellors, &c. may be 
taken for the whole principality. To this object 
should the income of the cloisters and other reli- 
gious foundations be applied, so as to give an 
honourable support to learned men, two in theology, 
two in law, one in medicine, one in mathematics, 
and four or five for grammar, logic, rhetoric, &c. . . . 
Thirdly, in all the towns and villages good schools 
for children should be established, from which those 



JE. 45.] 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 



477 



who are adapted to higher studies might be taken 
and trained up for the public." 

For a present of garments from the elector, 
Luther makes this singular acknowledgment, 
under date of August 17: "I have long delayed 
to thank your grace for the clothes and garments 
which were sent to me. I humbly beseech your 
grace not to believe those who represent that I am 
in want. I have, alas ! more, especially from your 
grace, than I can with good conscience receive. It 
is not meet for me, a preacher, to have abundance, 
neither do I desire it. Therefore, when I perceive 
your grace's too great liberality to me, I am not 
without fear ; for I do not wish to be found here 
in this life among those to whom Christ saith, 
( Wo ! unto you that are rich, for ye have received 
your consolation.' And, furthermore, to speak 
after a worldly manner, I desire not to be burden- 
some to your grace, knowing you have so many 
occasions to give, that you cannot have much to 
spare; for, if there be too much, it rendeth the 
sack. Though the brown cloth would of itself be 
too much, yet I will, out of gratitude and honour 
to your grace, wear the black garment also, not- 
withstanding it is too valuable, so that I would 
never wear it, if it were not a present from your 
grace. I beg you, therefore, wait till I complain 
and ask, so that I may not, by your forwardness 
to me, be prevented from begging for others, who 
are far more worthy of such favours. For your 
grace hath already done too much for me. May 
Christ graciously and abundantly repay it." 

We must not omit to give at least one speci- 



478 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1529. 



men, out of a hundred, of Luther's contempt for 
the Zwinglian party, with what reason the reader 
can judge. While at Marburg to see if there 
could be a union formed with that party, he 
wrote to his wife the following letter : " Dear lord 
Katy, know that our friendly colloquy at Marburg 
is ended, and that we were nearly agreed in all 
points, save that the other party will recognise 
nothing but bread in the supper, and will not ad- 
mit that Christ is present except spiritually. To- 
day the landgrave trieth to see if we cannot be 
agreed, or, if not agreed, that we recognise each 
other as brethren and members of Christ. He 
laboureth hard for this ; but we want nothing of 
this brothering and fellowship, though we are for 
peace and good-will. . . . Say to Bugenhagen the 
best arguments were those of Zwingle, 4 That a 
body cannot exist without space; therefore the 
body of Christ is not in the bread and of (Eco- 
lampadius, 6 That the sacrament is a symbol of the 
body of Christ.' I think God hath blinded them 
that they could bring forward nothing better. I 
have much to do, and the messenger is in haste. 
Say good night to all, and pray for us. We are 
all safe and sound, and live like princes. Kiss 
Lene and Jonny for .me." 

Luther's father, who had reached to an advanced 
age, was taken ill, and his sickness was the occa- 
sion of a letter from his son, full of tenderness 
and love. He begins thus : " To my dear father, 
John Luther, citizen of Mansfeld, grace and peace 
in Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour, Amen. 
Dear father, my brother Jacob hath written to me 



M. 45.] EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 479 

how that you are dangerously sick. Since the air 
now is bad, and it is everywhere dangerous, and 
your time of life is such, I am made very anxious 
about you. For though God hath given you a 
firm and strong body and hitherto preserved it, 
yet your age [probably not less than eighty] giveth 
me, at this time, anxious thoughts, although, aside 
from such things, none of us are sure of life, or 
ought to be. I should be, beyond expression, glad 
to visit you personally, but my good friends op- 
pose and have dissuaded me, and I myself must 
remember that I ought not to rush into danger, 
presuming on God; for you know what kind of 
favour I have, from both lords and peasants. It 
would be the greatest joy to me if it were possi- 
ble for you and mother to come hither to us, which 
my Katy desireth with tears, as do we all. I 
have therefore sent Cyriac [his servant] to you, 
to see whether your health will allow you to 
come. For in what way soever God shall dis- 
pose of you, whether for this life, or for another, 
I desire heartily, as I ought, to be present with 
you, and, by filial faithfulness and attention, ac- 
cording to the fifth commandment, to show myself 
thankful unto God and unto you." He then goes 
on to comfort his father with " those divine truths 
which God had already given him to know," and 
to express the desire and hope that God would 
" carry on to its completion, in the life to come, 
the work which had been begun in him." " For," 
he acids, "he hath already sealed in you these 
doctrines and this faith, and confirmed them by 
signs, inasmuch as you have with us all suffered 



480 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1529. 



much abuse, reproach, scorn, contempt, hatred, 
enmity and peril." 

Luther has been accused of inhumanity toward 
the Anabaptists ; and when we compare him with 
the mild Brentz, who opposed putting them to 
death for their sentiments, and with religious 
men of modern times, we must, in part at least, 
admit the charge. But in this he was not alone. 
Most of the Reformers having been brought up in 
the papal church were led to countenance, to some 
extent, her revolting doctrines and practices in 
respect to those whom she denounced as heretics. 
They conscientiously held opinions which would 
be repudiated by all enlightened Christians at the 
present day. Without dwelling on these painful 
details, we will adduce one brief letter, as giving 
a fair specimen of Luther's feelings, and thus 
dismiss the subject. The letter is addressed 
to Menius and Myconius, in 1530. " I am 
pleased," he says, " that you intend to publish a 
book against the Anabaptists as soon as possible. 
Since they are not only blasphemous, but also 
seditious men, let the sword exercise its right over 
them. For this is the will of God, that he shall 
have judgment who resisteth the power. Let us 
not, therefore, think better of these men than God 
himself and all the saints have done." Yes, the 
saints made themselves like unto God, and as- 
sumed the prerogative, not only of punishing those 
who were actually guilty of sedition, but of putting 
to death heretics whose sentiments were judged 
to be seditious in their tendency ! 



M. 46.] 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 



481 



The diet of Augsburg, so important in the his- 
tory of the Reformation, is first alluded to by Lu- 
ther, in a letter to Justus Jonas, March 14, 1530, 
in these words : " The elector hath written to us, 
that is, to you, Bugenhagen, Melancthon and my- 
self, instructing us to lay all other business aside 
and come together, and, before next Sunday, pre- 
pare whatever is necessary for the coming diet of 
April 8. For the Emperor Charles will come 
thither in person, as he writeth in his mandate, 
to adjust, in a friendly manner, all our religious 
differences. Wherefore, though you are absent, 
we, the other three, shall do to-day and to-mor- 
row what we can. It will be your duty, in order 
to comply with the will of the elector, to put your 
work [of visitation] into the hands of your asso- 
ciates, and be with us here to-morrow. Every 
thing must be hastened. May Christ breathe 
upon us, that all things may be done to his glory." 

He sa}^s to another friend, April 2 : "I am 
about to go as far as Coburg with the elector. 
Melancthon and Jonas will also go, and we shall 
wait there till it shall be known what will be un- 
dertaken at Augsburg." The same day he writes 
to his young friend Cordatus, who had experienced 
much trouble at Zwickau, and was now, moreover, 
afflicted with the loss of a son : " As to what I 
hear of your purpose to hasten away to the diet, 
I would say, I disapprove of it altogether. First, 
I have not been cited thither, but I am to go with 
the elector only to the border of his dominions. 
Secondly, the cause of the gospel will be managed 
in a very dilatory way, if at all ; for princes are 

41 



482 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530. 



not wont to act with despatch in matters of reli- 
gion ; and the Turkish question will, moreover, 
have the precedence there. You might, if you 
should wish, make a ftying excursion thither, at a 
suitable time, and let your Zwickau men get a 
little cool and gentle. Salute the companion of 
your grief, and endeavour to rejoice rather in a 
living Christ than mourn over a son deceased, or 
rather living, but removed. My Katy and all the 
family salute you." 

His next letter is dated at Coburg, April 18, 
and directed to Hausmann, pastor at Zwickau : 
" Say to Cordatus," he writes, " that we still re- 
main here, not knowing when we shall proceed 
farther. Yesterday, a messenger and letters 
reached us, informing us that the emperor was at 
Mantua, where he was to pass the festival of 
Easter. It is, moreover, said, that the Papists 
are labouring to prevent the meeting of the diet, 
out of fear that it will pass decisions against them. 
The pope is angry with the emperor for wishing 
to meddle with ecclesiastical affairs, and to give 
the parties a hearing ; for they had hoped he would 
act the part of executioner for them, and restore 
all things. They wish not to change, nor to lose 
any thing, nor even to be judged or examined, but 
simply that we be condemned or destroyed, and 
they reinstated, and thus destroyed. So they will 
go to utter ruin. ... I am commanded by the elector 
to remain at Coburg, I know not why, while the 
rest proceed to the diet. Thus, every thing grow- 
eth, from day to day, more and more uncertain." 

To Melancthon, after he had left Coburg for 



M. 46.] EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 483 

Augsburg, Luther writes : " We have come at 
length to our Sinai, my clear Philip ; but we will 
make of this Sinai a Zion, and build here three 
tabernacles, one for the Psalms, one for the Pro- 
phets, and one for iEsop, [three works to be pre- 
pared for the press.] But this last is temporal. 
The place is exceedingly lovely and convenient 
for study, save that your absence maketh it gloomy. 
... I pray Christ to give you quiet sleep, and to 
liberate and keep your heart from cares, that is, 
from Satan's fiery darts. These things I write 
because of my leisure, for I have not yet received 
my desk, papers, &c, nor have I seen either of the 
keepers. Nothing is wanting to make the soli- 
tude complete. That immense building which 
towers over the whole fortress is all ours, with 
the keys to all the apartments. More than thirty 
persons are said to take their food here, of whom 
twelve are night guards, and two watchmen in the 
different towers. But what of all this ? Why, 
simply, that I have nothing else to write." 

A mind like Luther's could not remain inactive, 
and, for want of other employment, he suffered his 
fancy to picture to itself a diet of birds, as he saAv 
them congregate before his window, much as he 
saw persecuting bishops in the huntsmen and 
hounds while engaged in the chase at Wartburg. 
The reader will easily recognise the satire. The 
sportive letter which we are about to present was 
addressed to his table companions at Wittenberg, 
and reads thus : " Grace and peace in Christ, dear 
friends. I have received your joint letter, and 
learned how you all are. That you may know, 



484 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530. 



in turn, how things are here, I give you to under- 
stand that we, that is, I, Master Veit Dietrich 
and Cyriac, do not go to the Augsburg diet, though 
we are attending another one in this place. There 
is, directly before my window, a grove where the 
jackdaws and ravens have appointed a diet ; and 
there is such a coming and going, and such a hub- 
bub, day and night, that you would think them 
all tipsy. Old and young keep up such a cack- 
ling, that I wonder how their breath holds out so 
long. I should like to know if there are any of 
these nobles and knights with you, for it seemeth 
to me that all in the world are gathered together 
here. I have not yet seen their emperor, but the 
nobles and great ones are all the time moving and 
frisking before us ; not gayly attired, but of one 
uniform colour, all black and all gray-eyed. They 
all sing the same song, though with the pleasing 
diversity of young and old, great and small. They 
pay no regard to the great palace and hall, for 
their hall hath the high blue heavens for its ceil- 
ing, the ground for its floor, the beautiful green 
branches for its panelling, and the ends of the 
world for its walls. They don't trouble themselves 
about horses and wagons, for they have winged 
wheels wherewith they escape from fire-arms. 
They are great and mighty lords ; but to what 
decisions they come I know not. But, so far as 
I can learn through an interpreter, they meditate 
a mighty crusade against wheat, barley, oats, malt, 
and all kinds of corn and grain, and there is here 
many a hero, who will perform great deeds. ... I 
consider all these nothing but the sophists and 



M. 46.] 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 



485 



Papists, with their preachers and secretaries, and 
must have them all before me thus at once, that I 
may hear their lovely voices and their preaching, 
and see how useful a class they are, to devour all 
that the earth bringeth forth, and cackle for it a 
long while." 

Perhaps Luther and his family were with none 
more intimate than with the family of Jonas. The 
wife of this friend of Luther seems to have been 
the one to whom all domestic anxieties and inte- 
rests were freely unbosomed by Luther and his 
household. On the 24th of April, 1530, while at 
Coburg, midway between her, at Wittenberg, and 
Jonas, now at Augsburg, he wrote to her as fol- 
lows : " Dear friend, I have read your letter to 
your husband, and was glad to learn that God 
hath given you a more cheerful mind touching 
your delicate situation, and the injury which has 
befallen your house. Your husband is not so 
cheerful, but is very anxious for you, and is quite 
angry and scoldeth about the breaking of the wall, 
and is as near to being offended with Mr. Blank 
as your house is near to his. But be not troubled • 
there will be no difficulty about the house, for an 
arrangement is already made to remedy the evil. 
. . . You will, I think, be blessed with a daugh- 
ter, they have now become so seldom and are so 
shy, a single house not being large enough for 
them ; just as their mothers can hardly get along 
with a husband and the whole world besides. Sa- 
lute your dear [son] Justus, the grandmother, and 
accept a salutation for yourself." The child al- 
luded to died in May, while the father was still 

41* 



486 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530. 



at Augsburg. The following letter to Melancthon 
on the occasion explains itself : " I have directed 
this letter to be delivered to you separately, for 
there was no other way of broaching the matter 
to Justus Jonas. See that in the gentlest way 
possible he be informed of the loss of his infant 
child. His wife and servant have written to him 
that the child is ill, but in language removed from 
all ideas of death. My wife write th that she was 
present when it died. It was with the same dis- 
ease that carried off her little Frederic. ... I 
was unwilling to write to him about it, lest his 
sorrow should be too great ; and I wish to keep it 
back from him, and write him another time. Per- 
haps this is the hour when our gospel is also in 
child-birth ; but we will, when the sorrow is over, 
rejoice that a man is born into the world. If our 
word is true, which the rage and fury of our ene- 
mies sufficiently declare, our cause is safe. . . . 
Do you, therefore, solace the man, who so sinketh 
in worldly trouble, that he may be able to rejoice 
while we are sad." A few days later, he writes a 
letter of condolence to Jonas, full of tenderness, 
saying, among many other things, "You have 
many great blessings to set over against this ca- 
lamity," and then mentions the excellent character 
of his wife. 

Luther's engagements and state of mind were 
such that he was disinclined to see so many visit- 
ors as were constantly calling upon him. "Yes- 
terday," says he to Melancthon, under date of 
June 2, " John Reineck of Mansfield [his old school 
companion at Magdeburg] and George Homer were 



JE. 46.] 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 



487 



here ; and to-day Argula von Stanfen. As I per- 
ceive that this place will be too much frequented, 
I am determined, after the manner of your Stro- 
nier, to pretend to go away, or actually go for a 
single day, that the report may go out that I am 
no longer here. Do you and your friends, there- 
fore, tell people not to call on me so much. I wish 
to be secluded." 

Near the end of May, Luther's father died. With 
what feelings he received the intelligence we may 
best learn from his own words in a letter to Melanc- 
thon : " To-day," he there remarks, " J ohn Reineck 
hath written to me that my dearest father departed 
this life, Sunday, the 29th of May. This death 
hath plunged me into deep sorrow, being affected 
not only by nature, but by the most tender love, 
for through him my Creator gave me whatsoever 
I am and have. And though what he write th to 
me, namely, that 6 strong in the faith of Christ, he 
sweetly fell asleep,' nevertheless my sorrow for him 
and the memory of his most delicious intercourse 
shake my whole frame. ... I now succeed next in 
the family name, and am the senior Luther in my 
family. ... It is right and fit that I, a son, should 
mourn for such a father, ... by whose sweat I 
was supported and made whatsoever I am. I 
rejoice that he lived in these times, when he could 
behold the light of truth." 

At a later period when, for four days, he could, 
as he says, neither read nor write, he chanced to 
find a mutilated piece of music in three parts, in 
the ditch. He corrected and altered it, added a 
fourth part, and composed words for it, and sport- 



488 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530. 



ively sent it to his friend, Agricola, to show to his 
chorister as the song with which the emperor and 
his brother were greeted on their entrance into 
Augsburg. lie amused himself by seeing whether 
he could thus mislead the chorister, and, to make 
the attempt the more successful, he requested 
Agricola to praise the piece. 

During Luther's absence, a student by the name 
of Weller became private tutor to his son John, now 
four years old. To him Luther wrote, June 19 : 
" I have received your two letters, both of which 
are very agreeable, but the last by far the most so, 
because, in it, you write concerning my John, say- 
ing that you have become his teacher, and that he 
is a sedulous and diligent pupil. I wish I could 
make you a suitable return, but what I cannot, 
may Christ repay. Master Dietrich hath signified 
to me that you have a spirit of melancholy, which 
is very hurtful to a young man." 

If we consider what the habits of our fathers 
were, as compared with those of most Christians 
of the present day, in respect to temperance, we 
shall hardly expect to find Luther, or any man of 
that age, conforming to all our stricter views or 
practices in this regard. There was indeed a 
society formed among the noblemen of Austria 
against drunkenness and profane swearing in the 
year 1517. But it was only when a member drank 
more than seven glasses of wine at one dinner that 
he was regarded as a transgressor, and was then to 
pay the fine of a horse. Luther drank wine and beer 
habitually, but with moderation. He, at one time, 
apologizes to some young men present for taking 



JE. 46.] EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 489 

wine in the evening, by saying that old men some- 
times need it to induce sleep. At Coburg, he wrote, 
June 19, to a friend : "I am well and live splen- 
didly, save that I have for a month had, not a tink- 
ling, but a thundering in my head, whether it be 
from the wine, or whether Satan thus playeth his 
game with me. I have finished Ezekiel, and now 
shall proceed to translate the other Prophets. Be 
diligent both you and the church in praying for the 
elector. Pray for him and for the whole diet, and 
be assured that prayer is not in vain. The power 
thereof is manifest and great." This was the time 
that tested the character of the Elector John, and 
well did it pass the ordeal. An expression of 
Luther's, the following January, states more ex- 
plicitly one cause of his illness. "The Witten- 
berg beer," he says, "hath not yet conquered the 
disease of the head contracted at Coburg by the old 
wine. I must therefore moderate my labours, and 
give my head its Sabbaths, a great evil to me and 
to the printers." He was then superintending the 
printing of the various works prepared at Coburg. 

Although Luther approved of Melancthon's draft 
of the Augsburg Confession, and said of it, in a 
letter to the elector, "It pleaseth me exceedingly 
well. I know not what improvement or change to 
make, nor would any alteration of mine be in place, 
for I cannot step so softly and gently ;" yet he dis- 
approved of Melancthon's caution and prudence as 
excessive. Therefore he writes to Jonas, (June 
20:) "I greatly and wonderfully exult in the 
abundant grace of God, in that our elector is of so 
firm and calm a mind. I think our prayers for him 



490 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530. 



have been heard. . . . This my joy is increased as I 
learn that you also are confident in God against 
this fury of Satan, [the violent proceedings of the 
diet.] Melancthon is swayed by his philosophy, 
and by nothing else ; for he will have the whole 
matter in his own hand. ... I would not have it 
in mine, nor would it be best. I have had much 
in my ovfti hand, and lost it all, and saved nothing. 
But what I have put out of my hands, [and into 
the hand of the Lord,] that have I secured and 
saved. ... I have here [in Coburg] become a new 
pupil of the decalogue, and am making myself a 
boy again, and learning it by heart. ... I begin to 
consider the decalogue as the logic of the gospel, 
and the gospel as the rhetoric of the decalogue ; 
and Christ as having all that is in Moses, though 
Moses hath not all that is in Christ." To Brentz, 
he expressed his feelings (June 30) more fully 
in regard to Melancthon's over-much solicitude. 
" From your letters, and from those of Melanc- 
thon and others, my Brentz," he observes, " I 
perceive that you are all in like manner troubled 
by that idolatrous diet. It is the example of 
Melancthon that so affecteth you. For he is 
anxious for the public peace and tranquillity, and 
that piously too ; but his zeal is not according to 
knowledge. Just as if our forefathers by their 
care and solicitude made us what we are, and not 
rather the counsel of God alone, who will be 
Creator after us, as he was before us. He will 
not die with us, or cease to be God, governing 
the thoughts of men. . . . These things I write 
to you and to others that, by the persuasion of 



M. 46.] 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 



491 



Bruck, [Pontanus,] or some other one of you, 
Melancthon may cease to desire to be ruler of the 
world, that is, to excruciate himself. If I should 
die, or be slain by the Papists, I shall still mightily 
defend our posterity, and be revenged upon those 
ferocious beasts enough, and more than I desire ; 
for I know that there will be one to say, 1 Where 
is thy brother Abel ?' and he will make them fugi- 
tives in the earth. ... If there is a God, we shall 
live not only here, but where he liveth also. And 
if this is so, what, I ask, are all these furious 
threats of idols, which are already, not barely 
mortal, but dead? He who created me will be 
the father of my son, the husband of my wife, 
the ruler of the people, the preacher of the parish, 
and will be, after I am dead, more and better than 
I am while alive." 

The important and yet delicate relations which 
the two reformers, Luther and Melancthon, sus- 
tained to each other, are perhaps nowhere more 
apparent than in the letter of the former to the 
latter, written June 29, 1530. Neither the gentle 
influence of Melancthon upon Luther, nor the 
invigorating, emboldening influence of Luther 
upon Melancthon, could safely have been dis- 
pensed with. But, at this time, unhappily, both 
were in a state of nervous excitement and irrita- 
bility. 

"I have read your rhetoric," says Luther, "by 
which you excuse your silence to me. In the 
mean time, I have written to you twice, explain- 
ing the cause of my silence. To-day I have re- 
ceived your last letter, in which you admonish me 



492 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530. 



of your labours, perils and tears, so that I seem 
unworthily to add sorrow to sorrow by my silence, 
as if I were ignorant of these things, or were sit- 
ting here upon a bed of roses, not bearing your 
cares with you. Unless your letter had reached 
me last night, ... I should have sent you a mes- 
senger at my own expense. ... I have received 
your Apology, [the Augsburg Confession,] and 
wonder what you wish or desire, — what and how 
much is to be conceded to the Papists. How 
much is to be yielded to the elector, if he is in 
danger, is another question. For myself, more 
than enough is already conceded in the Apology ; 
and if they refuse this, I see not how any thing 
more can be conceded, unless I can see better rea- 
sons and clearer passages of Scripture than I have 
yet seen. I am occupied with this subject day 
and night, thinking, revolving, reasoning and sur- 
veying the whole Bible, and my assurance in our 
doctrine increaseth, and I am more and more con- 
firmed, so that, God helping me, I will suffer 
nothing more to be taken from it, come what may. 
... I am not pleased with your saying in your 
letter, that you 4 follow my authority.' I do not 
wish to be, or to be called an authority in this 
cause ; and even if it could be so explained, I do 
not like the term. If it be not, at the same time, 
equally your cause, I am unwilling it should be 
said to be mine and imposed upon you. If it be 
mine, I will act for myself. ... It is the result 
and issue of this cause that troubleth you, because 
you cannot grasp it. If you could grasp it, I 
would have nothing to do with it, much less be 



M. 46.] 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 



493 



the author of it. God hath put it into that chap- 
ter which is not included in your rhetoric nor 
philosophy. That chapter is called faith, in which 
are placed all those things - which are not seen 
and do not appear;' and if any one attempt to 
render them visible, apparent and comprehensible, 
as you do, he will have troubles and tears as the 
reward of his labour, such as you now complain 
of, notwithstanding all our persuasions. 

"Postscript. After closing my letter, the thought 
hath occurred to me, that I might seem to you not 
to have replied specifically to your inquiries, how 
much and how far we should concede to our oppo- 
nents. But your inquiries are general; you do not 
signify what and how much you think will be de- 
manded of us. I am ready, as I have always said, 
to concede every thing, if only the gospel be left 
free unto us. But any thing repugnant to the 
gospel, I cannot concede." 

He also said, "I wish I could be allowed to 
come to you ; I burn with desire to come unbidden 
and uninvited." The elector knew why he would 
have Luther not so far from the diet as Witten- 
berg, nor so near as Augsburg. 

The first paragraph of the above letter is well 
interpreted by another, written in a more playful 
mood, the day after, to Spalatin. Five long letters 
to his friends at Augsburg, to Brentz, to Spalatin, 
to Agricola, to Melancthon and to the elector, bear 
date June 30. To Spalatin he writes: "You said 
you would not suffer yourself to be called dilatory 
in correspondence, and yet you are obliged to do 
so. You promised me and the Wittenberg friends 

42 



494 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530. 



that yon would write abundantly by the messenger 
of Jonas and of Dr. Apel, so that we might both 
expect and fear a whole forest of letters, which 
should be more obstreperous than my jackdaws. 
But when the messenger came, bringing letters 
from Jonas alone for Wittenberg, I said, ' Do you 
bring any letters for me ?' Reply, ' No.' ' How 
is it with the men there ?' Answer, 6 Well.' Of 
this case I have just made complaint to Melanc- 
thon. Afterward came a messenger on horseback, 
sent to Torgau, with letters from the elector. I 
asked him, ' Do you bring any letters for me ?' 
Reply, 'No.' 'How is it with the men there?' 
Reply, 'Well.' Then, when a wagon was going 
to Augsburg with flour, I wrote again to Melanc- 
thon, and that returned bringing no letters. Now 
I began to have gloomy thoughts, and to suspect 
you wished to conceal something from me. A 
fourth person came. I asked him, 'Do you bring 
me any letters ?' Reply, ■ No.' £ How is it with 
the men there ?' Answer, c Well.' I will not tell 
you how often our questor has, in the mean time, 
had letters from his brother Falkenstein, while we 
have been kept for more than three weeks hunger- 
ing and thirsting by the favour of your silence. 
From his letters have I been obliged to learn what 
I would know. Now I ask if you would not call 
me a dilatory correspondent, if I were to do so 
to you. I confess I was offended and alarmed, 
knowing, as I did, the anxiety of Melancthon 
and the trials of the elector. . . . But enough 
of this. Do not dispute, nor think any more 
about it." 



M. 46.] 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 



495 



If we desire still more light on this temporary 
ruffling of the feelings of the two reformers, it 
can be found in the letters of Melancthon and 
others. On the 25th of June, he wrote to Lu- 
ther : " The letter in which you complain of my 
silence giveth me great pain. I have written very 
fully every week. I know not how it happeneth 
that this evil should be added to the great and 
distressing cares which I have in this place, 
namely, that I should be judged so much in 
fault that you will not write to me." The next 
day, he wrote to Veit Dietrich, [Vitus Theodo- 
ras :] "I cannot express how much it distresseth 
me that, in your letter, you say the doctor is so 
angry with me that he will not even read my let- 
ters. You know how I am situated, and in what 
peril we all stand. We here are in greatest need 
of his counsel and consolation. I have, therefore, 
hired a special messenger to take this letter, that 
I may appease him and make some inquiries. I 
have left it unsealed, in order that you may read 
it and repeat it to him, if he will not read it." 
The letter to Luther commences thus : " I am here 
in a wretched state of anxiety and in perpetual 
tears. Besides this, a strange consternation hath 
to-day seized my mind on reading Dietrich's let- 
ter, in which he saith you are so angry, &c. . . . 
I will not, my father, exaggerate my sorrow to 
you; but I beg you to consider what is my con- 
dition, and what are my perils, where I have no 
solace but in your consolations. Every day the 
sophists and monks are flocking to the emperor to 
imbitter him against me. The bishops already 



496 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530. 



hate me. Friends, if I ever had any, are now 
away. Alone and deserted, I am here struggling 
with great dangers. I entreat you to consider 
either me, who follow your authority in the most 
important matters, or the public, and not refuse to 
read my letters and reply, both that you may 
govern my conduct and comfort me." Osiander 
wrote to his Nuremburg friends, July 4, saying, 
among other things : " Melancthon, worn out and 
exhausted with many labours, vigils and cares, is 
sometimes troubled with melancholy and almost 
desperation, without any good reason, which 
greatly dejecteth most of our party. I soon 
perceived, and learned from others, that he hath 
a natural inclination to melancholy. In such a 
state of mind he thinketh, speaketh, writeth and 
acteth, which doth not help our cause, so that he 
must be watched and chided, that he do nothing 
which will make us all repent. Luther, knowing 
this, took occasion to write pungently to him, 
and to exhort others to chide him." Melancthon 
thanks Luther, July 8,. for answering his letters, 
and from that time the current of good feeling 
flows clear again. 

Luther had just finished his commentary on 
the 118th Psalm, which he dedicated to Frederic, 
abbot at Nuremburg, of whom mention has been 
already made. In the dedicatory epistle, dated 
July 1, he says : "Venerable and dear friend and 
patron, I have desired to manifest my gratitude 
for your love and favour; but, in worldly estate, I 
am a poor beggar ; and had I ever so much, your 
condition is such that I could effect but little. I 



JE. 46.] EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 497 

have, therefore, turned to my wealth, my treasure, 
and taken from it my favourite psalm. I have put 
my thoughts upon it on paper, because I had so 
much leisure here in my desert, and because I 
wished, at times, to rest and relieve my mind 
from severer labours, namely, the complete trans- 
lation of the Prophets, which I hope soon to finish. 
These thoughts of mine I have desired to dedicate 
and present to you, having nothing better to give. 
Though some may regard it a profuse and, per- 
haps, useless expectoration, yet I am sure it con- 
taineth nothing evil or unchristian. For it is my 
psalm, the one I love. Though all the psalms 
and the whole Bible are very dear to me, as my 
only consolation and life, still I am wonderfully 
attached to this psalm, so that I may call it mine. 
For it hath often done me great service, and 
helped me out of many sore troubles, when 
neither emperors, kings, sages, nor saints could 
have helped me. I value it more than I should 
the favour, wealth and power of the pope, the 
Turks, the emperor and all the world; and I 
would not exchange this psalm for them all to- 
gether." 

To Spengler he thus decribes the device which 
he had decided to have for his seal : " First, a 
black cross in a heart of a natural colour, to re- 
mind me that faith in him who died on the cross 
saveth us. . . . Though the cross is black, morti- 
fieth and giveth pain, still it leaveth the heart in 
its own colour, doth not destroy nature, doth not 
kill, but maketh alive. . . . Such a heart is enve- 
loped in a white rose, to show that faith giveth 

42* 



498 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530. 



joy, comfort and peace. It is set in a white rose, 
and not a red one, because it giveth peace and 
joy not as the world giveth. . . . This rose is placed 
in an azure field, to signify that such spiritual joy 
is the beginning of future heavenly joy, already 
apprehended and included in hope, but not yet 
manifest. In the azure field is a gold ring, to sig- 
nify that the bliss of heaven is everlasting, and 
the most jDrecious of all possessions, as gold is the 
most precious metal." 

Section II. — From the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 to Lu ther s 
Death in 1546. 

The purpose for which the emperor had sum- 
moned the diet was not answered. On his part, 
there was to be seen nothing of that clemency 
mentioned in his summons, but, on the contrary, a 
close adhesion to the papal party, and a menacing 
severity toward the Protestants, and most of all 
toward the Elector of Saxony. But the latter, 
together with Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, mani- 
fested a firmness and courage superior to all such 
intimidations. Indeed, the excessive violence of 
the emperor and the severity of the decision of 
the diet, both bound the Protestant princes more 
closely together, and provoked an opposition, 
which, when organized at successive conventions 
at Smalcald, became too powerful to be despised, 
and the emperor, at last, saw the necessity of 
coming to an agreement with them. At the Nu- 
remberg pacification, in 1532, articles were agreed 
upon and signed by both parties. 

The course pursued by Luther during this busy 



M. 47-63.] 



WANT OF CHARITY. 



499 



period of two years, in which he was consulted in 
respect to all the public measures adopted by the 
Protestant statesmen, was somewhat peculiar, pre- 
senting a singular compound of opinionated per- 
tinacity and of submissive compliance. In his 
uncharitableness toward the Zwinglian party, he 
persisted so far as to exclude them from any parti- 
cipation in the Protestant cause, neither admitting 
them as associates at Augsburg, nor as members 
of the Smalcald confederacy for mutual protection 
and defence. The Landgrave Philip, who sympa- 
thized with Zwingle in his view, exhausted all his 
influence upon Luther, in endeavouring to persuade 
him that the differences of opinion which prevailed 
respecting the Lord's supper were not so funda- 
mental as to require the utter rejection of the 
Swiss churches. But it was all in vain. Luther's 
pious abhorrence of their doctrines w T as as deeply 
and as immovably fixed in his mind as was that 
against the Anabaptists. On the other hand, he 
maintained that the Protestant rulers had no right 
to combine together for mutual defence, if the 
emperor should make war upon them for their 
religion. When the Saxon jurists decided, that, 
according to the constitutional principles of the 
empire, the electors and other princes had, clearly, 
the right to protect themselves against the illegal 
encroachments of the emperor, Luther merely ad- 
mitted that it might be so according to the civil 
law ; but adhered to his original opinion in a theo- 
logical point of view. But what is still more 
strange, he resisted nearly all the statesmen of 
his own party, w T ho insisted, that, not only those 



500 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530-1546. 



who had already embraced the Protestant doc- 
trines, but those who should hereafter embrace 
them, ought to have their rights secured in the 
articles of pacification with the emperor. Luther 
said it was but reasonable that the emperor should 
insist on excluding the latter from the benefits of 
the articles of agreement. If men will not come 
out and show themselves openly in times of dan- 
ger, they are not entitled, he maintained, to the 
quiet and security acquired by others at their 
peril, and so he prevailed against the landgrave, 
who maintained the contrary. However great we 
may admit the urgency to have been, to secure a 
peace with the emperor and to avoid a religious 
war, the principle here avowed by Luther savours 
little of that brotherly love which is an essential 
part of true religion. 

The emperor was obliged to be often absent 
from Germany, in order to attend to his affairs in 
Spain and Italy. As he had taken decided ground 
against the Protestants, and as the dukes of Ba- 
varia were jealous of the house of Austria, it 
seemed necessary for the emperor to have some 
one on whom he could rely to protect his interests 
in Germany during his absence. The Elector of 
Saxony was, properly, the vicar of the empire ; 
but he was the leader of the Protestants, and a 
league between them and the disaffected Catholic 
dukes of Bavaria might endanger the emperor's 
interests. Charles decided to secure the corona- 
tion of his brother Ferdinand as King of Home, 
the effect of which would be to make him suc- 
cessor to the imperial throne, thus establishing his 



M. 47-63.] WANT OF CHARITY. 



501 



own family in power, and excluding the rival Ba- 
varian family; and also to place the government 
of Germany in Ferdinand's hands, whenever he 
himself should have occasion to be absent. Lu- 
ther, with less wisdom and less knowledge of 
political affairs than the advisers of the elector, 
advocated the propriety of yielding this point to 
the emperor, greatly to the grief of the elector. 

The latter part of Luther's life is not suscepti- 
ble of the same treatment as the former. It has 
less unity, and must either be presented without 
a very consecutive chain of events, or must be 
spread out into a general history of the times so 
widely as to lose the character of a biography. 
The choice between the two courses cannot, in the 
present work, be doubtful. Leaving, therefore, 
the tenor of general history, we revert to the 
narrative of events of a more personal character. 

The irregular and harsh proceedings of the 
magistrates of Zwickau, in relation to the clergy 
of the place, were doubly wounding to Luther's 
feelings. He was grieved that such an example 
should be set to the newly-organized churches ; 
and he almost regarded it as a personal injury 
that the pastor, Hausmann, his confidential friend, 
should be treated with such indignity. He, there- 
fore, used his influence with the elector in favour 
of Hausmann's removal from " the beastly inhabit- 
ants of Zwickau" to a people of a more congenial 
spirit ; and the result was, the settlement of his 
friend in Dessau, where he enjoyed the confidence 
of the princes of Anhalt. 

In the same year, that is in 1531, Luther was 



502 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530-1546. 



afflicted by the death of his mother. He was 
not able to visit her in her last illness, but wrote 
her an affectionate letter to confirm her faith and 
to prepare her mind for the event that was near 
at hand, and closed by saying, "All the children 
and my Katy pray for you. Some of them weep, 
and some eat and say, ' Grandmother is very sick.' 
The grace of God be with us all." 

The next year was made one of sadness to Lu- 
ther by the death of the Elector John, surnamed 
the Constant. He went to Schweinitz, a summer 
residence a few miles to the east of Wittenberg, 
for the purpose of indulging in the chase, and was 
taken suddenly ill. Luther, Melancthon and Schurf 
arrived a short time before his death. "Alas !" 
said Luther, "how a great prince dieth here alone, 
without the presence of a son, relative, t>r friend 
to witness his departure ! The physicians say he 
died of the cramp. Just as children are born without 
sorrow, live without sorrow, and die without sorrow, 
so will our dear prince, at the last day, come to 
himself, as if fresh from the chase in the Lochau 
Forest, and will not be conscious of what happened 
to him." His son, John Frederic, then in his 
twenty-ninth year, succeeded him. Though a firm 
and faithful friend of the Reformation, and al- 
ready conversant with public affairs, he had not 
the high qualities of wisdom and firmness which 
characterized his predecessors, Frederic and John. 

Many of Luther's letters, written about this 
period, were letters of consolation to the afflicted, 
the tempted and the persecuted, or of warning to 
rulers and magistrates against disturbers of the 



M. 47-63.] GENERAL COUNCIL PROPOSED. 503 

public peace, particularly the Anabaptists, who 
were beginning, at Minister and other places, to 
lift their heads again. In 1533 and 1534, he was 
employed in preparing a new edition of his hymns, 
in completing his translation of the Bible, in com- 
forting and aiding Christians who had been ba- 
nished from Leipsic by Duke George, and in other 
labours of piety and charity. 

Luther, from the beginning of his public career 
as a reformer, had always desired and demanded 
that a general and free council of the church should 
be held, before which both religious parties might 
bring their complaints for adjudication. The Ger- 
man diets had joined with Luther in this request, 
and even the emperor promised that such a coun- 
cil should be held. But the Roman pontiffs had 
opposed the project, or, if they seemed to yield, 
they required that it be held in Italy, be consti- 
tuted and organized by the pope, and, moreover, 
that it decide the questions submitted to it by the 
traditions and usages of the church. The Pro- 
testants, on the contrary, demanded that the 
council should be held in Germany, where the 
troubles existed; that it should not be subject to 
the authority of the pope, but that he, as one of 
the parties, should be subject to the authority of 
the council ; and that its decisions should be 
formed, not according to human traditions, but 
according to the word of God. Charles V., on his 
way to Spain in 1532, had an interview with the 
pope, Clement VII., on the subject, in consequence 
of which a papal ambassador and an imperial orator 
appeared with the proposal before the elector at 



504 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530-1546. 



Weimar, but were referred by him to the assem- 
bly of Protestant princes to be held the year fol- 
lowing at Smalcald. At that meeting they received 
answer, as stated above, that the council must be 
held in Germany, that the pope must not be both 
party and judge, and that the Scriptures, and not 
human opinions, must be ultimate authority. 

Two years later, in 1535, the project was re- 
newed by Paul III., Clement's successor, and the 
elector asked the opinion of Luther whether any 
other answer should be given to the pope than 
that given before. Luther replied that he believed 
the whole matter to be a mere feint, and there- 
fore was not disposed to trouble himself about the 
conditions. Luther had good reasons for such an 
opinion, for the previous proposal for a council on 
the part of the pope was undoubtedly made for 
no other purpose than that of preventing a Ger- 
man diet which, he feared, would meet to act on 
the same subject, at that unfavourable time, when 
the Protestant power was strong. The papal le- 
gate, Vergerio, came, in this instance, to Witten- 
berg, to hold an interview with Luther himself, 
and the morning after his arrival invited Luther 
and Bugenhagen to breakfast. Early in the morn- 
ing, Luther sent for a barber to prepare him for 
the occasion, who, when he had come, said, " How 
is it that you wish to be shaved so early ?" " I 
am to go," replied Luther, " to the legate of his 
holiness the pope, and I must adorn myself, so as 
to appear young ; and the legate will then say to 
himself, 6 Zounds ! is Luther so young, and yet 
hath done so much mischief ? What then will he 



M. 47-63.] INTERVIEW WITH THE LEGATE. 



505 



yet do ?' " When his head was dressed, he put 
on his best clothes, and laid his jewel, set in gold, 
around his neck. The barber said to him, " Doc- 
tor, that will be offensive to them." " For that 
reason I do it," said Luther ; " they have con- 
ducted offensively enough toward us ; and we 
must manage in this way with those serpents and 
foxes." " Go, then, doctor," said the barber, "in 
God's name, and the Lord be with you, that you 
may convert them." " That," said the doctor, " 1 
shall not do ; but it may be that I shall read them 
a good lesson, and let them go." He then mounted 
the carriage with Bugenhagen and drove off to 
the castle, to the legate. On the way, he smiled 
and said to his companion, " Here go the German 
pope and Cardinal Bugenhagen; these are God's 
instruments and artillery." 

On arriving at the place, he w T as announced and 
immediately admitted and kindly received, and he 
greeted the legate in turn, but not wdth the high- 
sounding titles which were formerly used on such 
occasions. They soon began to speak of a council, 
and Luther said, " You are not in earnest about 
holding a council ; it is only a trick ; and if you 
were to hold one, it would concern itself only about 
cowls, shorn heads, meats, drinks, and such-like 
foolish things, and others still more useless, which 
we know, at the outset, to be nothing. But of faith 
and justification and other useful and weighty mat- 
ters, such as how believers may be united in spirit 
and in faith, you do not wish to confer, nor would 
it be for your interest. . . . But if you desire to 
have a council, very well : have one, and I will 

43 



506 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530-1546 



come, though I should know you would burn me at 
the stake." "Where?" answered the legate. "In 
what city will you have the council ?" " Where you 
please," was the answer, " at Mantua, or Padua, or 
Florence, or wheresoever you please." "Will you 
come to Bologna ?" said the legate. " To whom 
does that place belong V inquired Luther. " To 
the pope." " Gracious Lord, hath the pope got 
his clutches on this city, too ! Well, I will come," 
said Luther. The legate added, " The pope would 
not refuse to come to you at Wittenberg." "Well, 
then," said Luther, "let him come; we should 
like to see him." " How would you like to see 
him," replied the legate, " with an army or with- 
out ?" " Just as best pleaseth him," said Luther ; 
" we will be ready for either." Then the legate 
asked, " Do you consecrate priests ?" " To be 
sure," said Luther, "for the pope will not con- 
secrate or ordain any for us. Here you see a 
bishop, (pointing to Bugenhagen,) whom we have 
consecrated." After the interview was over, and 
when the legate was seated upon his horse, he said 
to Luther, " See that you are prepared for the 
council." Luther replied, " I will come, sir, with 
this neck of mine." 

Through the influence of the Landgrave of Hesse 
and Bucer, who were extremely desirous for the 
union of the two Protestant parties, efforts were 
made in 1534, 1535, and 1536, to agree upon arti- 
cles of concord relating to the eucharist. The 
cities of Strasburg, Augsburg, Ulm, and Esslingen 
in particular, which were situated in the south- 
west of Germany, along the borders, between the 



M. 47-63.] CONVENTION AT SMALCALD. 



507 



Lutheran influence on the one side, and the Zwing- 
lian on the other, were inclined to the extreme 
views of neither party, and were anxious that both 
should agree on some common intermediate ground. 
A convention was finally held at Wittenberg, May, 
1536, for the purpose; and Luther succeeded in 
bringing the Upper Germans, as they were called, 
to subscribe to his views. 

Toward the close of the year 1536, as the pope 
had proposed to the Protestants to hold a general 
council, the theologians of Wittenberg were di- 
rected by the elector to draw up articles in respect 
to it, which might be presented to the convention 
about to be held on that subject at Smalcald. This 
is the origin of the Smalcald Articles. Luther, 
Melancthon, Bugenhagen and others from Witten- 
berg attended this convention, which resulted in a 
refusal on the part of the Protestants to partici- 
pate in the council. Luther and his companions, 
who went by the way of Grimma, Altenburg and 
Weimar, arrived at Smalcald, near the south-west- 
ern border of Saxony, the 7th of January, 1537. 
The first week he had little to do, and complained 
that business proceeded so slowly. The second, 
he suffered so severely from the stone that he did 
not expect to live to return home. The elector, 
Melancthon, Spalatin and Myconius were often at 
his bed-side. The elector said to him : " If, con- 
trary to our hopes, it be the will of God to take 
you from us, be not concerned about your wife and 
children, for they shall be my wife and children." 
Getting no relief for more than a week, he decided 
to be removed from Smalcald, as medicines could 



508 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530-1546. 



not be procured there. At Tambach, he experi- 
enced relief ; but while at Gotha, he had a return 
of his excruciating pains, and six stones, one of 
nearly the size of a bean, passed from him. He 
was able to proceed to Erfurt, and then, after a 
pause, to Weimar. At Altenburg, he stopped at 
the house of Spalatin. Melancthon wrote after- 
ward from Griinma that Luther had some rest and 
could take a little food ; and, after a little more 
than two weeks from the time of leaving Smalcald, 
he reached home in extreme weakness. 

The following year was imbittered by one of the 
severest trials which Luther had been called to 
endure. Agricola, of Eisleben, one of his dearest 
and most confidential friends, led on, perhaps, by 
some of Luther's unguarded and unadvised expres- 
sions, became an avowed Antinominan, and main- 
tained that Christians had nothing to do with the 
law of God, but were to concern themselves simply 
with Christ crucified. The enemies of Luther re- 
joiced in this new schism, and maintained that it 
was the legitimate fruit of his doctrines. He 
wrote six elaborate disputations in the course of 
four years to disprove the positions of Agricola, 
and took from him the license to preach which he 
had formerly given him. 

For twenty years, ever since the Leipsic Dis- 
putation in 1519, Duke George had been among 
the bitterest of Luther's enemies. He imprisoned 
and put to death Luther's followers, and at one 
time banished eight hundred souls from Leipsic. 
But, connected as his territories were with those 
of the elector, it was impossible to keep them free 



JE. 47-63.] REFORMATION IN SAXONY. 509 

from the influence of the Reformation. Even his 
brother Henry, who held his court at Freiberg, 
favoured the evangelical doctrines. Finally, Prince 
John, son of the duke, on whom he relied for the 
maintenance of the Catholic faith after his death, 
died before him, and afterward another son ; and 
the Protestant Henry was the next heir to the 
throne. Just at the time that a dangerous league 
of Catholic princes was expected to open an attack 
upon the Protestants, George, a leader among 
them, suddenly died, and all their plans were de- 
stroyed in a moment. 

Luther and his associates were now called upon 
by Duke Henry of Saxony to introduce the Refor- 
mation into his dominions, beginning at Leipsic. 
Luther preached his first sermon on this occasion, 
May 24, 1539, in the chapel of the same palace 
where, twenty years before, he had held his de- 
bate with Eck. This was in fulfilment of his own 
prediction : — " I see that Duke George will not 
cease opposing the word of God and the poor 
Lutherans. But I shall live to see him and his 
whole family perish, and shall one clay preach 
God's word in Leipsic." The next day, when he 
preached in St. Nicholas' church, there was such 
a crowd that all the space about the pillars and 
railings and passages was full, and many stood 
out of doors and heard him through the windows. 
The hearers fell upon their knees, and with tears 
thanked Gocl that the day of their deliverance had 
come ! 

It was at the close of the same year, that the un- 
happy consultations commenced about the bigamy 

48* 



510 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530-1546. 



of the Landgrave of Hesse. Luther and Melanc- 
thon were involved in inextricable difficulties by 
the false principles on which they suffered them- 
selves to act. That they acted hypocritically, out 
of fear of offending the landgrave, as has often been 
said, is hardly credible ; that they were misled 
by their ill-advised casuistry, is but too evident. 
Nothing was ever thrown into their teeth with 
more bitterness and scorn by the Catholics, than 
their secret approval of this flagrant violation of 
Christian morals. A sufficient apology for their 
conduct in the unhappy affair cannot be given. 
It so wore upon Melancthon's feelings as to bring 
on a sickness which came very near proving fatal. 

Conventions, conferences and diets were still 
held, during the succeeding next two or three 
years, at Smalcald, Worms, Ratisbon and Spire, 
to settle the difficulties between the Catholics and 
Protestants ; but Luther, who was tired of these 
useless endeavours, excused himself from attend- 
ing them, and the task was imposed upon Melanc- 
thon and others, whom Luther aided by his counsels. 
The last years of Luther's life were rendered cheer- 
less, partly by the death of many dear friends, and 
partly by the unhappiness which sprung up be- 
tween himself and the living. These events will 
be sufficiently presented in the extracts from his 
letters which follow. 

Although more than thirteen hundred octavo 
pages of letters were written by Luther after his 
return from Coburg in 1530, only a small part of 
them relate to his private history. The remainder 
are connected with public transactions, of so com- 



M. 47-63.] EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 511 

plicated a character, that a full explanation of 
them would of itself constitute a general history 
of Germany for the times. Only a few selections, 
therefore, can, in accordance with the plan of this 
work, find a place here. 

The third letter written after his return to Wit- 
tenberg was addressed to Amsdorf, his confiden- 
tial friend. In this he says : " In complaining 
unto me of my silence, most excellent Amsdorf, 
you do but furnish me with an occasion of justly 
expostulating with you for yours, which hath 
been so obstinate and perseA r ering. For when 
you did know of my solitude, you were not only 
wanting in commiseration, so as not to comfort 
me with yom letters, but you added grief to 
grief, by afflicting me with perpetual silence. 
And now you even add to your sin by gratui- 
tously reproving and censuring me for a fault, not 
my own, but yours. You compel me to suspect 
that you have meanwhile, perhaps, been made 
Archbishop of Magdeburg and Primate of Ger- 
many, so that you easily forget me in my poverty, 
and proudly censure me. Hence it cometh, I 
think, that you complain of my calling the Arch- 
bishop of Mainz 6 most reverend father,' lest I 
may thereby detract somewhat from your honour ; 
though I only used the language of courts, in 
which even ferocious demons are called 'gracious 
lords.' In one thing you gratify me, namely, in 
approving the books I have published this sum- 
mer. More I could not write, by reason of my 
poor health ; and on those which were written, 
only half, or a little more, of the time I was in my 



512 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530-1546. 



solitude, stolen with difficulty from sickness, could 
be emplo} r ed. The printers proceeded with a pace 
equally slow, for they still have in press two books 
written long ago. Of the rest I will speak when 
you come to visit me, which I hope will be very 
soon, in order that we may refresh ourselves in 
each other's company, before we are separated for 
ever. For I feel that I am fast growing old, at 
least, am losing iny strength. A messenger of 
Satan hath severely buffeted me. The Lord be 
with you in grace and truth." 

The name of Jerome Weller has already been 
mentioned as a tutor to Luther's son, and as a 
young man of fine talents, but of melancholy dis- 
position. His brother Peter was also a friend of 
Luther, and even lived in his house. To the for- 
mer, in a state of despondency, Luther, whose 
experience well qualified him for the office, wrote 
the following words of encouragement, under date 
of November 6, 1530: "My dearest Jerome, you 
ought to consider that this temptation of yours is 
from the devil ; and that he thus vexeth you be- 
cause you believe in Christ. For you see how 
secure and joyful he lets those be who are most 
hostile to the gospel, as Eck, Zwingle and 
others. . . . You ought to rejoice in this tempta- 
tion of the devil, because it is a sure sign that 
God is propitious and merciful to you. You will 
say, 'The temptation is heavier than I can bear,' 
and will fear lest it so prostrate and oppress you 
that you will fall into desperation and blasphemy. 
I know this art of the devil : whom he cannot by 
the first assault lay prostrate, he endeavoureth 



M. 47-63.] EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 



513 



assiduously to harass and debilitate, that he may 
fall and confess himself vanquished. Wherefore, 
as often as this temptation conieth upon you, take 
care that you do not debate with the devil, or in- 
dulge in these deadly cogitations. For this is but 
to believe the devil, and to yield to him. But 
rather boldly despise these cogitations suggested 
by the devil. In this kind of temptation contempt 
is the best and easiest means of overcoming the 
devil. Laugh your adversary to scorn, then, and 
seek for a companion or friend. Flee solitude, for 
he then lieth in wait for you, and catcheth you 
when you are alone. This devil is overcome, not 
by resistance and disputation, but by ridicule and 
contempt. Indulge, therefore, in playfulness and 
facetiousness with my wife and others, and by that 
means delude those diabolical machinations, and 
be of good cheer. This temptation is more need- 
ful to you than your meat and drink. I wish to 
relate what happened unto me when I was about 
your age. When I first went into the monastery, 
it happened that I was always falling sad and 
melancholy, nor could I lay this sadness aside. 
Wherefore I consulted Dr. Staupitz, and confessed 
to him, whom I love to mention, and disclosed to 
him what horrid and terrific cogitations I had. He 
said : i You know not, Martin, how useful and 
necessary this temptation is to you. For God 
doth not so exercise you in vain; you will see 
that he will employ you to clo great things.' And 
so it hath turned out. For I am become (this I 
may justly say of myself ) a great doctor, which 
at that time, when I was under the temptation, 



514 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530-1546. 



I would never have believed. So, beyond all 
doubt, will it be with you. You will become a 
great man. See that you be of good heart, and 
be assured that such words, coming from the lips 
of learned and great men, are a sort of oracle and 
divination." 

To Veit Dietrich, now in Coburg, he writes : 
" I have succeeded to the labours of Bugenhagen, 
[the city pastor ;] I preach, lecture [in the uni- 
versity,] am distracted with causes to be decided, 
and am busy in writing letters, so that I can do 
no more. Salute all in my name. I must seize 
time by force, if I would do any thing out of my 
line of duties. My head still roareth, especially 
in the morning." 

As pastor, he had occasion to perform new 
duties, one of which, relating to a breach of pro- 
mise, we find represented in the following official 
letter : " I, Martin Luther, doctor of the Holy 
Scriptures, and preacher at Wittenberg, do you, 
Brosius Heinrich of Dittersdorf, to wit, that the 
honourable lady Anna, widow of Wetzel of Zerne- 
gal, hath appeared before me, and entered com- 
plaint that you promised her proper marriage, and 
was therefore publicly affianced to her ; and, not- 
withstanding this, have abandoned her, and refused 
to fulfil, according to promise and duty, (which are 
binding before God and all the world,) to consum- 
mate the marriage with the aforesaid lady. Where- 
fore she hath called upon me, as pastor, for the 
time being, at Wittenberg, to protect her in her 
rights. In place, therefore, of the pastor, I hereby 
peremptorily summon and cite you to appear be- 



JE. 47-63.] EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 515 

fore me and others, who have such things in 
charge, here at Wittenberg, to hear said com- 
plaint, and whatever else is right and proper." 

The deliberation of Luther with his young friend 
Jerome Weller, in regard to his marriage celebra- 
tion, is not without interest to us. " I have learned 
with satisfaction," says Luther in a letter to him, 
" that you have become a man, and have obtained 
a companion. . . . May Christ bless you and your 
spouse, and grant that you may always live to- 
gether with kindness and affection. I do not en- 
tirely approve of your plan for the wedding. You 
know the difficulty under which we labour here 
because of our market, so that neither I nor my 
Katy can conceive how, in such a destitution of 
all things, we can provide a suitable dinner for 
such a multitude. I would not like to leave any 
stain upon your honour or mine. I think it would 
be better to celebrate the marriage in Freiberg, 
[Weller's residence,] or, if that cannot be done, 
to take leave of your friends there with a splendid 
entertainment for as many as would be convenient, 
and then come hither with a small company, as 
Cruciger, Dr. Briick and others did, and prepare 
a collation or dinner of two or three tables. ... If 
you were to invite all the university and the fa- 
milies of the professors, and others, who could not 
on my account be omitted, you would need nine 
or twelve tables. You remember that on receiv- 
ing your doctorate, you invited the men without 
their wives and children, and yet seven or eight 
tables were filled." In another letter, he says 



516 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530-1546. 



such a public wedding in Wittenberg would cost 
one hundred gulden. 

In January of 1537, Luther wrote to his son 
John, who was at school, these affectionate and 
judicious lines : " Thus far, my dearest John, your 
studies and the letters you have written please me. 
If you go on thus, you will not only gratify me, a 
tender father, but will chiefly benefit yourself in 
not becoming degenerate. Wherefore proceed dili- 
gently as you have begun. For God, who com- 
mandeth children to obey their parents, promiseth 
blessings to obedient children. See that you re- 
gard this blessing only, and that you do not allow 
yourself to be misled by bad examples. For the 
same God threateneth disobedient children with 
cursing. Fear God, then, who blesseth and curseth, 
and who, though he delay his promises and threat- 
enings to the destruction of the wicked, fulfilleth 
them soon enough for the salvation of the good. 
Fear God, then, and listen to your parents, who de- 
sire nothing but your good, and flee base and evil 
conversation. Your mother heartily saluteth you, 
as also aunt Lene, with your sisters and brothers, 
who also all look forward to your happy career and 
the end of your studies. Your mother biddeth 
you salute your preceptor and his wife. If they 
wish to come with you this carnival or vacation, 
very well, though I shall be absent. Aunt Lene 
desireth it very much. Farewell, my son ; learn 
and practise the counsels of good men. The Lord 
be with you." 

The Smalcald convention was held in February 
of this year. A few words from Luther's letters 



M. 47-63.] EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 517 

will sufficiently represent to us the character of 
that convention, and the feelings which he cher- 
ished in respect to it. "Although, my dear Jonas," 
he writes to him from Altenburg, " this letter, as 
I suppose, will not come to hand immediately, 
nevertheless I desire to say that I hope you are 
by this time recovered from the gravel, and that 
my prayers are heard. It is rumoured that the 
holy legate, [Peter Vorst,] Bishop of Aix, is on 
his way from Nuremberg to visit our prince. This 
hath been written to him from Coburg, whereunto 
he replied, that the legate must come to Smalcald, 
if he desired to see him. . . . The imperial chan- 
cellor, Matthias Held, will be there. The conven- 
tion will, perhaps, be greater than either party 
expected. God grant that it may be a true coun- 
cil. ... I miss your company exceedingly. Visit 
my family, and also the Pomeranian Rome [the 
family of Pomeranus, or Bugenhagen] and its Qui- 
rites, [citizens*.] We are well and happy, and 
have been sumptuously entertained by the prince 
in his castles at Grimma and Altenburg. We had 
hoped to be guests of that old Pylades [true friend] 
and Theseus, [namely, Spalatin ;] and therefore 
amused ourselves, after our manner, which you 
know, in making Latin verses on him. 

" I wish to write to you while I have leisure ; 
for after a little time we shall be engaged in de- 
liberation. . . . Many think there will not be as 
many men at the council of Mantua as here, though 
there may be more mules, asses and horses, with 
riders like themselves. . . . Yesterday the Land- 
grave of Hesse and the Duke of Wirtemberg made 

44 



518 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530-1546. 



a splendid entry into the city. To-day, the princes 
are in secret council, while we are at leisure, and 
can write. What will be done I do not know, nor 
can I divine. Yesterday Spalatin preached; to- 
day I shall do the same before the princes, in the 
lofty and spacious parish church, which is so large 
that our voices will sound like that of a mouse in 
it. The place and the climate are healthy, and we 
are well. You only are missed. You would like 
to see so many great men, and to be seen among 
them. Yesterday I suffered from the gravel." 
The dangerous illness, already described, imme- 
diately ensued. 

In May, 1538, he wrote to Duke Albert of 
Prussia, on the Vistula, in behalf of his brother- 
in-law, who wished to enter again into the service 
of that excellent prince. "My brother-in-law," 
he says, "John von Bora, who was formerly in 
your service at Memel, [near the borders of Rus- 
sia,] hath desired me to write to you. He was 
forced to stay away from you long, to marry and 
settle on his estate, in order to hold possession of 
it ; but hath never wished to abandon your ser- 
vice. He hath always spoken in your praise, and 
desired to be in your employ ; and now it is his 
request that you will take his long absence in 
good part, which was caused only by the neces- 
sity of securing his own and his brother's estate." 
This brother of Catharine von Bora, Luther's wife, 
is often mentioned by Luther in his letters. In 
1539, failing of an appointment in the service of 
Duke Albert, he was made overseer of a Bene- 
dictine nunnery in Leipsic, by Henry, Duke of 



M. 47-63.] EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 519 

Saxony. Afterward he obtained from the Elector 
John Frederic, a small estate, a little south of Al- 
tenburg, which he retained from 1545 to 1560. 

Not long after writing the letter quoted in part 
above, he wrote the following lines to a judge in 
Torgau : " 6 Serve the Lord with fear, and be in- 
structed, ye judges of the earth.' These words 
should be the judge's daily motto; and it is, I 
think, yours. For you are such a pious and 
Christian judge, as all who know you testify. I 
thank you, my dear J udge Antony, that you gave 
your assistance to Margaret Dorste, and did not 
allow the nobles to take away her property and 
her very blood. You know that Dr. Martin is not 
only a theologian and a champion of the faith, but 
a defender of the rights of the poor people, who 
come to him from all quarters to get help before 
magistrates, so that he would have enough to do, 
if he had no other business. But Dr. Luther 
loveth to serve the poor, as do you also ; for you 
fear the Lord ; you love Christ ; you study the 
word of God, and still learn your catechism daily 
no less than the children in the school. Christ, 
the Lord, will remember this of you. But, dear 
Judge Antony, it was not enough for you to listen 
to my request and entreaty, and to give me pleas- 
ing intelligence of your love and readiness to grant 
my request, but you must honour me with a pre- 
sent — with a whole cask of Torgau beer of your 
own brewing. I am unworthy of such kindness ; 
and, though I know that you are not poor, but 
that God hath blessed you with abundance, still I 
should have liked better that you should have 



520 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530-1546. 



given it to the poor, and from their prayers have 
received a greater blessing than you can from poor 
Martin's alone." 

The following touching allusion to the death of 
the companion who went with him, when a boy, to 
the school at Magdeburg, will be read with inte- 
rest. "It is strange," says he, in writing to a 
citizen of Mansfeld, " how carefully all my friends 
and relations concealed from me the death of John 
Heineck, your brother-in-law, and my best friend. 
Neither my brother Jacob nor my Katy was will- 
ing that I should know any thing of it in my sick- 
ness. Yet I rejoice that he died so happily and 
piously, though I bear with reluctance and grief 
the loss of such a man." 

Under date of 1539, we find a letter of Luther 
to his sister, whom he addresses as " Lady Do- 
rothy, wife of Balthasar Mackenrot, in the ser- 
vice of the elector at Rossla," in the vicinity of 
Nordhausen. He there says : " Dear sister, I 
see from your letter to me that your highly bur- 
dened conscience longs after the comforting preach- 
ing of the gospel, and that you desire it to be 
introduced into your church at Rossla. Rejoic- 
ing thereat, I have resolved to be with you at 
Christmas, if God shall spare my life and health, 
and to introduce, with God's help, the first evan- 
gelical preaching myself both at Rossla and Upper 
Rossla, and to establish it as a memorial. Greet 
your husband, and your little daughter Margaret, 
for whom I will bring some present." This sister 
survived Luther several years. 

When his daughter Magdalene was apparently 



JE. 47-63.] 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS 



521 



near her end. Luther wrote to T organ, Septem- 
ber 6, 1542, for his son John, who was attending 
school there. •'• I request you/ 7 he said to Marcus 
Crodel, " to keep from my son John what I now 
write you. My daughter Magdalene is drawing 
near to death, and will soon be with her true Fa- 
ther in heaven, unless it shall seem best to God 
that it should be otherwise. But she longeth so 
much to see her brother, that I am constrained to 
send a carriage for him. hoping she may live till 
he returneth. They were very fond of each other. 
I do whatsoever I can. that my conscience may 
not afterward reproach me. Direct him. there- 
fore, without mentioning the reason, to hasten 
home in this carriage, by which time she will 
either be with the Lord, or be restored." The 
daughter lived but two weeks. He says, in a 
letter to Justus Jonas, after her death, that, not- 
withstanding her peaceful and happy departure, 
" The power of parental affection is such, that he 
cannot suppress his sighs and groans." (i The 
countenance, words and motions of the living and 
dying daughter, so obedient and reverent, remain 
deeply fixed in my heart." 

The same year, Jonas experienced a great 
bereavement in the death of his wife, the most 
intimate of all the friends of Luther's family. 
The latter wrote to Jonas thus : " What to write 
I know not, so suddenly hath your calamity 
stricken me down. We have all lost one of the 
sweetest of companions. She was not only be- 
loved by me, but her countenance was always 
pleasant and full of consolation, so that we had 

44* 



522 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530-1540. 



all our joys and sorrows in common, and bitter 
indeed is the separation. I had hoped she would 
survive me, as the best and first comforter among 
women for my wife and children." 

In 1545, the year before his death, Luther be- 
came dissatisfied, as he had often been before, 
with the people of Wittenberg for their luxury 
and wanton pleasures. He even resolved to leave 
the place and spend the remnant of his days else- 
where ; and in May actually forsook Wittenberg, 
and went first to Lobnitz to his friend Ernest von 
Schonfeld; then to Leipsic to see a mercantile 
friend by the name of Scherle ; afterward to 
Merseburg to the provost, Prince George of An- 
halt ; and finally, to Zeitz to visit Amsdorf, now 
bishop. But the entreaties of a deputation from 
the elector and from the university induced him 
to return. His last work was the completion of 
his Commentary on Genesis, on which he had 
laboured diligently ten years. The closing words 
are : " I am weak, and can do no more. Pray God 
that he may grant me a peaceful, happy death." 

The Counts of Mansfeld had been for several 
years at variance, with some of their subjects, 
whom they wished to deprive of their furnaces. 
Luther's brother-in-law, Mackenrot, was in danger 
of losing his. Luther had written to Count Al- 
bert on the subject in 1540 and in 1542, and 
also to the other two counts, Philip and George. 
These counts were in controversy also with each 
other, in respect to what is called the right of 
patronage. Luther, who had advised them to 
settle the matter by a reference, was himself re- 



M. 47-63 ] 



AT EISLEBEN. 



523 



quested to be one of the referees, and gave his 
consent. Though it was contrary to his custom 
to intermeddle in secular disputes, he yielded in 
this case, because he was a native of Mansfeld, 
and owed it a service. He left Wittenberg, Jan- 
uary 23, 1546, with his three sons, John, Martin 
and Paul. On the 25th he reached Halle, and 
stopped with Jonas the three following days, on 
account of the flood in the river Saale. From 
this place he wrote to his wife : " Dear Katy, 
We came hither at eleven o'clock, but did not 
proceed to Eisleben : for a great Anabaptist met 
us with his waves and blocks of ice. We could 
not return on account of the river Mulda. There- 
fore we were forced to remain at Halle between 
two floods, not that we were thirsting for these 
waters, for we have good Torgau beer and Rhenish 
wine, and indulged in these till the wrath of the 
Saale should cool off." 

On the 28th, Luther, his three sons and Jonas, 
crossed the river in a boat, not without danger, 
that they might proceed to Eisleben. No sooner 
had they reached the boundaries of the county of 
Mansfeld, than the counts met them with an escort 
of one hundred and thirteen horsemen. Before 
reaching Eisleben, Luther was very ill, but re- 
covered after being rubbed with warm cloths. 
From January 29 th to February 17th, he was 
engaged every day at Eisleben, with the counts, in 
settling their difficulties. He became impatient 
at his apparent want of success, and often wished 
himself at home again. 

February 6, he wrote as follows : " To the pro- 



524 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530-1546. 



foundry learned lady, Catharine Luther, my gra- 
cious housewife at Wittenberg. Dear Katy, We 
continue here in a state of vexation, and wish our- 
selves away ; but that cannot be, I think, within 
a week. You may tell Melancthon to correct his 
Postil, for he did not understand why the Lord 
called riches thorns. This is a school for learning 
to understand that. . . . Your sons are at Mans- 
feld. We have enough to eat and to drink, and 
should have good times, were it not for these dis- 
agreeable transactions." 

While at Eisleben, his native place, he com- 
muned twice, ordained two priests, and preached 
four times. Three days before his death, he 
preached in the pulpit, which is still standing, his 
last sermon, from Matt. xi. 25-30, and closed by 
saying : " This, and much more, may be said from 
the passage, but I am too weak, and here we will 
stop." During his stay at Eisleben, his conversation 
was unusually rich and impressive, both on religious 
and other subjects. He experienced all that ex- 
hilaration which an old man is wont to have in 
visiting the place of his birth. Every evening, 
for those twenty-one days, he retired, about eight 
o'clock, from the great hall, where the company 
transacted their business and took their meals, to 
his private apartment, and, standing by the win- 
dow, prayed for a long time so earnestly that Dr. 
Jonas, M. Coelius, preacher at Mansfeld, his ser- 
vant Ambrose, and Aurifaber of Weimar, often 
overheard him. 

On Wednesday, the 17th of February, the 
Princes of Anhalt and Count Albert of Mansfeld 



M. 47-63.] 



DEATH-SCENE. 



525 



and his friends generally entreated him not to 
enter the great hall during the business in the 
forenoon, but to take repose in his own room. He 
did so, lying a part of the time upon his leathern 
couch, walking the room a part of the time, and 
going to the window at times, and praying so that 
Jonas and Coelius, who were with him in the room, 
could hear him. At noon he left his own apart- 
ment, and dined in the great hall with the com- 
pany. At table he was heard to say: "If I 
could only reconcile the rulers of my native place 
with one another, and then, with God's permission, 
make the journey, I would go home, and lay my- 
self clown to sleep in my grave, and let the worms 
devour my body." In the afternoon, before supper, 
he complained of a painful pressure at the breast, 
and requested that he might, according to his cus- 
tom, be rubbed with warm cloths. He experienced 
a little relief, and was able to take his supper in 
the hall. His conversation at this time, which is 
recorded, related to death, eternity and the recog- 
nition of friends in a future state. As he arose 
from supper, he went to his room, accompanied by 
his two sons, Martin and Paul, then fourteen and 
thirteen years of age respectively, and Coelius. 
Soon the latter left the room, and Aurifaber en- 
tered. Luther now complained of a pain in the 
breast, as before. Jonas and Coelius were imine- 
diately*called, who rubbed him with warm cloths, 
and Count Albert, who brought with him the 
shavings from the tooth of a sea-unicorn, a fa- 
vourite medicine in those days, and Luther took 
it. He slept till ten o'clock in the evening, and 



526 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530-1546. 



Jonas, Coelius, his host Albrecht, and his wife, 
Ambrose and Luther's two sons watched with 
him. At ten he arose, and attempted to walk, 
but was obliged to return to his bed. He after- 
ward slept till one o'clock, and when he awoke he 
requested Ambrose to make more fire, although 
the room had been kept very warm. As Jonas 
asked him whether he felt weak, he replied : " Oh ! 
how I suffer. Oh! my dear Jonas, I think I shall 
die here at Eisleben, where I was born and bap- 
tized." The friends were awaked and called in. 
When Jonas spoke encouragingly of his profuse 
sweat, Luther said, "It is a cold death-sweat; I 
must yield up my spirit, for my malady increas- 
eth." He then prayed fervently, and commended 
his soul confidently to God. After taking a little 
medicine, and assuring his friends that he should 
die, he repeated three times quickly the words : 
" Father, into thy hands do I commend my spirit ; 
thou hast redeemed me, thou faithful God." He 
then became quiet. The attendants shook him, 
rubbed him, and spoke to him, but he closed his 
eyes and made no reply. Jonas and Coelius then 
spoke very loud, and said, " Venerable father, do 
you die trusting in Christ and in the doctrine 
which you have preached ?" and he answered dis- 
tinctly, " Yes," and turned upon his right side and 
seemed to sleep for nearly a quarter of an hour. 
His friends were encouraged, but the physician 
told them that it was no favourable symptom. A 
light was brought near his face, and it was evi- 
dently turning pale ; and his forehead, face and 
feet were becoming cold. After one gentle breath 



M. 47-63.] FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 527 

and sigh, with folded hands, he quietly died, on 
Thursday, the 18th of February, 1546, between 
two and three o'clock in the morning, at the age 
of sixty-two years, three months and eight days. 
He was laid out upon a bed till a lead coffin could 
be cast ; and two painters were employed to take 
his likeness. 

On the 19th of February, at two o'clock, a 
funeral discourse was preached by Justus Jonas 
before a large audience at St. Andrew's church, 
which stands nearly opposite the house where 
Luther died. The corpse remained over night in 
the church, guarded by ten men. The Counts of 
Mansfelcl desired that he might be buried at Eisle- 
ben, where he was born and where he died. But 
the Elector of Saxony was desirous that his re- 
mains should be brought to Wittenberg, and depo- 
sited in the collegiate or electoral church, and the 
counts yielded to his wishes. Another funeral 
discourse, however, was pronounced by Michael 
Coelius, of Mansfeld, before the body was removed 
from Eisleben. 

The same day, between twelve and one o'clock, 
the corpse was removed, a great company follow- 
ing it to the gate of the city, and the Counts of 
Mansfeld, with about fifty-five horsemen, proceed- 
ing with it to Wittenberg. As they passed along 
the way to Halle, the bells were tolled in the vil- 
lages and many people came to express their grief. 
At five o'clock, as they approached Halle, the 
clergy, civil authorities, citizens, schools, matrons, 
virgins and children in great multitudes came out 
in mourning, and singing funeral hymns to meet 



528 



LIFE OF LUTHER. 



[1530-1546. 



the procession. At one of the churches, to which 
the body was conveyed at seven o'clock in the 
evening, one of Luther's hymns was sung anrid a 
flood of tears, and then a watch was stationed 
there for the night. The next morning, which 
was Sunday, the procession left the city in the 
same manner in which they entered it, and reached 
Bitterfleld at noon, where they were received with 
becoming ceremony. Here they were met by the 
delegation from Wittenberg sent by the elector. 
They came as far as Kemberg, and it was even- 
ing. The next morning, they approached the 
eastern gate of Wittenberg, and were joined by 
the widow and sons of the deceased, and a great 
multitude from the university and the city, and 
passed amid crowds of people to the church at the 
other end of the town. Here the funeral cere- 
monies took place, and a funeral sermon was 
preached by Bugenhagen, and an address was 
delivered by Melancthon, after which the remains 
of Luther were deposited near the pulpit in which 
he had preached, where they still lie, to attract 
the attention of the thousands who, after three 
centuries, still continue to visit Wittenberg, the 

SEAT OF THE REFORMATION. 



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